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YALE LECTURES ON THE 
RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENSHIP 



AMEEIOAN CITIZENSHIP 



AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 



YALE LECTURES 



BY 

DAVID J. BREWER 

fj 

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT 
OF THE UNITED STATES 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1902 






' Nfc U8KARY OF 

CONGRESa 
T*o Copies Reohiveo 

APR. I J 1902 

Copvrwht army 



SLA88 <L XXo. No. 



copy a. 






Copyright, 1902, by 
YALE UNIVERSITY 



Published, April, 1902 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



In May,, 1900, Honorable William E. Dodge, 
of New York, made provision for lectures be- 
fore the students of Yale University, to be 
known as the "Yale Lectures on the Kespon- 
sibilities of Citizenship " and to be on a 
"topic whose understanding will contribute to 
the formation of an intelligent public senti- 
ment, of high standards of the duty of a Chris- 
tian citizen, and of habits of action to give 
effect to these sentiments and these standards." 

Having been honored by selection to deliver 
the first course of these lectures I have felt that 
it was fitting to present a few plain, simple, 
commonplace truths in respect to those respon- 
sibilities, thus laying, as it were, a foundation 
upon which succeeding lecturers might in a 
more ambitious way develop some particular 
form of responsibility, or some particular ap- 
peal to noble action. With this in view I have 
prepared the following lectures. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Obligations of Citizenship .... 3 

II. The Maintenance of a Good Char- 
acter a Primary Obligation of 
Every Citizen 31 

III. Service a Responsibility of Citizen- 

ship 61 

IV. Obligation of Obedience .... 85 

V. The Duty of Striving to Better 
the Life of the Nation .... 107 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 



AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 

Out of all the relations into which human 
beings enter, or are brought, there spring obli- 
gations — obligations resting upon each party to 
the relationship, yet varying in the specific 
duties imposed with the character of the re- 
lationship and the place each occupies therein. 

In many relationships the existence of obli- 
gations is obvious and universally recognized. 
In others the fact of obligation is not always 
conceded, frequently not appreciated, and not 
infrequently ignored. Thus, no one doubts 
that when man and woman enter into the mar- 
riage relation certain obligations are thereby 
imposed upon each. All recognize that there 
immediately springs up and continues during 
the existence of that relation a mutuality of 
obligation, although the character of the duties 



4 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

imposed upon each by virtue thereof may be 
different. A business partnership creates, as 
all readily perceive and acknowledge, certain 
obligations on the part of each to the other. 
A distinct disregard by either party to a mar- 
riage, or by either member of a partnership, of 
the obligations created by such relationship re- 
ceives general condemnation. 

There are other relationships, not so close 
and intimate, which also cast obligations upon 
each party thereto, and yet the fact and sig- 
nificance of those obligations often make little 
impression on the parties bound thereby. We 
owe certain duties to our neighbors, but upon 
how many of us the burden of those duties rests 
lightly or is wholly forgotten? In a general 
way we say that we ought to be neighborly, and 
yet too often all that we do is to let our neigh- 
bors alone, and ask them to let us alone. Who 
is our neighbor ? is a frequent question. The 
Great Teacher answered it in the story of the 
Good Samaritan, as the one we meet in life 
whom we can help and do help. It may also 
be affirmed that there is one universal relation- 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 5 

ship in that we are all members of one great 
human family, and that out of that relation- 
ship spring obligations which no right-thinking 
man will ignore. It was a noble utterance of 
the ancient Koman, "nihil humanum mihi 
alienum est." 

As I stated, the mere fact of relationship car- 
ries obligations, and it matters not whether 
that relationship is one voluntarily entered 
into, or one in which we are placed without our 
consent. Marriage is a relation voluntarily 
entered into. On the other hand, a child is 
born into a family, and without its consent the 
relation of child to parent is established, and 
yet none the less do obligations spring from 
that relationship. We are not only born into 
families but also into citizenship in a nation, 
and so long as the relationship springing out 
of that birth continues there are obligations 
resting upon us as citizens which cannot be 
ignored. These obligations are the responsibili- 
ties of citizenship. 

One may at the same time be subject to many 
relationships, and sometimes the obligations 



b AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

springing out of those different relationships 
apparently antagonize each other. One may 
be under a relationship of marriage, of part- 
nership, of parent, of citizen, and the varied 
duties springing from those several relation- 
ships may seem to conflict. He may have to 
determine which carries the higher obligation; 
but the possibility of conflict does not alter the 
fact that there are duties springing from each 
of those relationships. 

Again, many of the obligations which spring 
from the relationships of life are not enforcible 
by human law or the decrees of a court. They 
are called imperfect obligations because, as said 
with gentle satire, law which is the perfection 
of reason takes no notice of them. They are 
cognizable only in the forum of conscience. 
But ofttimes they are felt to be the most 
sacred, and this partly because they appeal 
alone to the higher element in our nature and 
have no sanction in exterior force. Take the 
relation of parent and child. Municipal law 
enforces — perhaps not always satisfactorily — 
at any rate it attempts to enforce the obliga- 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 7 

tion of the parent to care for the minor child. 
It is certainly one of those obligations which 
the law recognizes, no matter how poorly it 
may succeed in its enforcement; but when the 
child has arrived at maturity and the parent 
passed into the weakness of old age then that 
high moral obligation which rests upon the 
child to care for the failing parent is one 
which the law does not recognize or attempt to 
enforce. " Over the hill to the poorhouse " 
expresses the imperfection of human law, and 
yet to every right-thinking person the obliga- 
tion to care for the aged parent is as sacred as 
any. No sweeter picture in life can be seen 
than that of son or daughter who, in memory 
of corresponding care in days of infancy, toils 
through the years of manhood or womanhood 
to care for the parent in the failing strength of 
old age. Take another illustration: One obli- 
gation of husband and wife to each other is that 
of helpfulness and courtesy. But if the treat- 
ment of either to the other only comes short 
of cruelty the law takes no notice of it. Still 
who does not feel that the inability or inatten- 



8 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

tion of the law detracts in no degree from the 
sacredness of this obligation? Even the very- 
much neglected courtesies called for by the 
temporary relationship of fellow-passengers in 
a street-car are in the truest and highest sense 
duties, and duties whose faithful discharge car- 
ries, like virtue, its own reward. Indeed, may 
I not stop to say that among the things which 
make for the sweetness and real glory of one's 
life is a keen recognition of those obligations 
which are outside the domain of law. 

Again, a fact worthy of notice in respect to 
all obligations is that the more perfectly one 
discharges them the greater the blessings which 
come from the relationship out of which they 
spring. The mother who is most faithful to 
the child during its early days finds in the 
future years of its life the highest reward of 
motherhood. " These are my jewels," cried 
the mother of the Gracchi. The ripened man- 
hood and womanhood of her children become 
her crown of joy and rejoicing, and their affec- 
tion and tender care are the sweetest comfort 
that a mother ever knows. A partner who is 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 9 

most faithful to his partnership obligations 
will find that partnership most fruitful of re- 
sult. The neighbor who is most neighborly- 
feels, as no one else, the blessing of being and 
having a neighbor. And yet it is one of the 
paradoxes of life that in order to attain the 
full blessings of a discharge of obligation, such 
discharge must not be with a thought of pur- 
chase, with the hope of compensation, but from 
the pure sense of obligation. You cannot se- 
cure the great rewards of life by working for 
them. There is an unfailing truth in the 
declaration, " he that saveth his life shall lose 
it and he that loseth his life shall save it." 
Duty done because it is duty carries the crown 
and the laurel. Indeed, there is no more mag- 
nificent word in the English language than 
" duty." As Whittier says : 

a There's life alone in duty done, 
And rest alone in striving. ' ' 

The existence of relationship, at least in 
cases in which both parties are competent to 
act intelligently, carries with it a mutuality of 



10 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

obligation. The husband, by virtue of the re- 
lationship of marriage, owes certain duties to 
the wife. Conversely, the wife owes duties to 
the husband. The mere fact of the relation- 
ship imposes obligations on each. So, in the 
case of parent and child, as soon as the child 
comes to an age of understanding there is a 
measure of obligation resting upon him to the 
parent, as well as upon the parent to him. 
Now, the fact that either party to a relation- 
ship may wholly ignore the obligations created 
thereby does not necessarily release the other 
from the performance of his duties. Indeed, 
sometimes the dereliction of the one seems to 
increase or at least emphasize the duty of the 
other. There is often the not unreasonable ex- 
pectation that greater faithfulness on the part 
of the one will renew the neglected fidelity of 
the other. Take the familiar example of hus- 
band and wife. Delinquency on the part of 
one does not excuse the other from fidelity. 
It may be that no rule can be stated which 
will fit all cases, and yet the possibility of 
restoring the helpfulness of the relation and 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 11 

re-establishing the sense of duty on the part of 
the delinquent is always to be considered. 
Who can number the multitude of cases in 
which an increased fidelity on the part of one 
has brought the other back to a sense of duty ? 
Indeed, such restoration is not infrequently a 
blessed result of duty done. It is obviously a 
case of salvage. Every one familiar with Ad- 
miralty knows that the compensation in such 
cases is large and generous, and so the salvage 
which one party to any relationship in life 
ought to receive and does receive on the restora- 
tion of the other through his or her increased 
fidelity, is among the great compensations of 
life. He that saveth a soul from death shall 
hide a multitude of sins. 

While all relationships impose obligations on 
the parties thereto, the character and force of 
those obligations vary with the nature of the 
relationship. Some are stronger and more im- 
portant than others; some more continuous in 
their force, and some the performance of which 
affects a larger number of persons. In order, 
therefore, to a full understanding of the scope 



12 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

and significance of such obligations it is not 
enough to determine the fact of a relationship ; 
it is necessary to inquire into its nature and 
conditions, and consider whether it is mainly 
personal, or one directly or indirectly affecting 
many. 

With these preliminary observations, I pass 
on to say that among the relationships in life 
out of which spring obligations is that of the 
individual to the nation or tribe of which he is 
a citizen or member. And here I start with 
the broad proposition that whatever may be the 
position, capacity, or surroundings of the in- 
dividual, and whatever may be the character of 
his nation or tribe, or its fidelity to its corre- 
sponding obligations, he is always under obli- 
gations to that nation or tribe. A member of 
the most savage tribe in the centre of Africa 
owes certain duties to it and to its chief, and 
the same is true of the citizen of the most civ- 
ilized nation in the world. While there is a 
similarity in the nature of those obligations, 
yet it is clear that their significance and reach 
vary largely with the conditions in which the 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 13 

individual is placed and the character of the 
tribe or nation to which he belongs. Contrast, 
for instance, the obligations of an uneducated 
savage to his tribe with those of the President 
of Yale University to the United States. 
There may be like duty of service and obedi- 
ence, and yet the obligations in the one case 
are much more important and far-reaching 
than in the other, and of greater significance 
to the individual and to the race. Indeed, it 
may be laid down as a general proposition that 
the higher the status of the two parties to any 
relationship the more far-reaching are the 
obligations which spring therefrom, and the 
more significant and important is the full dis- 
charge of those obligations. The manner in 
which the citizen of a savage tribe discharges 
his obligations to that tribe, whether well or 
ill, means less for the general weal or woe than 
the way in which a citizen of the United States 
discharges his obligations. And it is because 
in the one case the parties to the relationship 
are of more importance to the well-being of the 
world than those in the other. 



14 AMERICAN" CITIZENSHIP 

-?c Of all the obligations of citizen to nation 
none is greater than those of one of our citizens 
to the Kepublic. The responsibilities of citi- 
zenship are nowhere more sacred and solemn. 
To impress this truth is the purpose of these 
lectures. Let me notice some of the facts 
which justify the assertion. First, this Ee- 
public occupies a unique and prominent posi- 
tion among the nations. It may be there are 
other nations with more territory or popula- 
tion, larger military and naval forces, a greater 
accumulation of wealth, or a longer history, 
but not one whose history has been more 
significant, in whose present the world is more 
interested, and above whose future there spans 
a brighter rainbow of hope and promise for 
humanity. /This is a government of and by 
and for the people. It rests upon the thought 
that to each individual belong the inalienable 
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. It affirms that the nation exists not 
for the benefit of one man, or set of men, 
but to secure to each and all the fullest op- 
portunity for personal development. It stands 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 15 

over against the governments of the Old World 
in that there the thought is that the indi- 
vidual lives for the nation; here, that the na- 
tion exists for the individual. It was estab- 
lished in a place, at a time, and under circum- 
stances peculiarly unique and fortunate — con- 
ditions which can never be repeated, and if the 
effort here made to establish popular govern- 
ment fails we may well believe that the failure 
will be final and irretrievable^ As Webster 
said : " If, in our case, the representative sys- 
tem ultimately fails, popular governments 
must be pronounced impossible. No combina- 
tion of circumstances more favorable to the ex- 
periment can ever be expected to occur. The 
last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us; 
and if it should be proclaimed that our example 
had become an argument against the experi- 
ment, the knell of popular liberty would be 
sounded throughout the earth." 

It was established by the most earnest and 
resolute men of the most virile races the world 
has ever developed. The place was a new con- 
tinent, separated by three thousand miles of 



16 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

boisterous ocean from the nations and civiliza- 
tion of the Old World, at a time when the 
peoples and the nations of that world were 
beginning to be moved by forces which soon 
involved all of them in prolonged conflict. 
They who formed the Kepublic were too few 
in number and too poor in resources to ap- 
peal very strongly to the greed of the distant 
monarchs. They were by themselves and they 
were left to themselves. Their leaders were 
men of clear conviction, resolute and conscien- 
tious. They were not blind to the lessons of 
the past and they had unswerving faith in 
the possibilities of the future. They were rea- 
sonable radicals and progressive conservatives. 
They were not dazzled by power or glory or 
wealth. Coming here under the impulse of 
strong convictions they meant to establish the 
best home for man on the face of the earth. 
Thus situated and thus protected the Eepub- 
lic grew in numbers and wealth until it be- 
came strong enough to resist the attack of any 
nation, and now is so strong as to be a recog- 
nized leader among the nations. It has blazed 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 17 

the way for popular government. Other na- 
tions have followed in its footsteps and estab- 
lished like governments. Yet none has become 
its equal; something has always been lacking. 
Either while the form has been Eepublican the 
substance has been despotism, or else the people 
have had no respect for the form. Elections, 
instead of being settlements securing stability 
of rulers and confirming matters of policy for 
stated periods, have been simply invitations to 
revolution, while neither life nor property has 
been sacred. 

Far be it for me to affirm that we have lived 
up to our ideals. I am making no Fourth of 
July speech. On the contrary, Wr history has 
disclosed many shortcomings. We have not 
been free from the weaknesses of human nat- 
ure. But, notwithstanding all our failures, 
nowhere has there been a closer living to the 
ideals of popular government, and nowhere are 
the possibilities of future success greater. If, 
therefore, the chief object of national existence 
is to secure to each individual the fullest pro- 
tection in all inalienable rights and the fullest 



18 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

opportunity for personal advancement, and if 
this nation has come nearer than any other to 
the realization of this ideal, and if by virtue of 
its situation, its population, its development, it 
has the greatest promise of a full realization of 
this ideal in the future, surely it must be that 
the obligations of its citizens to it are nowhere 
surpassed. 

Again^the significance of the responsibilities 
of citizenship in this Eepublic also appears in 
the fact that here each man is a ruler. It goes 
without saying that where there is a single ruler, 
whether the chieftain of a savage tribe or the 
monarch of a civilized nation, the duty of that 
ruler to his tribe or nation is one of supreme 
importance. Its welfare depends largely upon 
his actions, and as so much rests upon his ac- 
tions by just so much is increased his duty of 
rendering the best service. The pure and 
noble life of Queen Victoria has exalted the 
British nation. Now, government of the peo- 
ple, that government which exists among us, 
means that each man is a ruler ; each shares the 
responsibility of government. And if each 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 19 

man is a ruler then upon each rests the obliga- 
tion of a ruler. That there are many rulers 
may diminish the effect of the separate action 
of any single one, but it does not change the 
fact that upon each rests the obligation of 
ruler. Upon him lies the burden of govern- 
ment. As he acts so the nation acts. And 
there is no man in this country who can say he 
has nothing to do with the action of the gov- 
ernment. Le Grand Monarque, in the arro- 
gance of his power, is said to have exclaimed, 
" The State ! I am the State/' With him the 
thought was that the whole purpose and life of 
the State centred in himself. In a different 
but equally true and a far nobler sense every 
American can say, " The Nation ! I am the 
Nation." And that fact of personal responsi- 
bility, that sense of governmental duty, gives 
strength and importance to the responsibilities 
of the American citizen. 

Still again, this is a christian nation. Not 
that the people have made it so by any legal 
enactment or that there exists an established 
church, but christian in the sense that the 



20 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

dominant thought and purpose of the nation 
accord with the great principles taught by the 
founder of Christianity. Historically it has 
developed along the lines of that religion. Its 
first settlements were in its name, and while 
every one is welcome, whether a believer in 
Christianity or in any other religion, or in no 
religion, yet the principles of Christianity are 
the foundations of our social and political life. 
It needs no judicial decision to determine this 
fact. The commission to Columbus was from 
" Ferdinand and Isabella, by the grace of God, 
king and queen of Castile," and recited that 
"it is hoped that by God's assistance some of 
the continents and islands in the ocean will be 
discovered." The first colonial grant from the 
crown of England, in 1584, authorizing the 
grantee to enact statutes, provided that "they 
be not against the true christian faith now pro- 
fessed in the church of England." The first 
charter of Virginia, in 1606, recited that it was 
granted in hopes of the "propagating of chris- 
tian religion to such people as yet live in dark- 
ness and miserable ignorance of the true knowl- 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 21 

edge and worship of God." The Mayflower 
compact declared that its colonial settlement 
was " for the glory of God and for the advance- 
ment of the christian faith." The fundament- 
al orders of Connecticut recited that they were 
established " to maintain and preserve the lib- 
erty and the purity of the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus which we now profess." Running 
through other colonial charters, in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, in the Constitutions of 
the various States, in the proceedings in courts, 
and in those official declarations which are the 
manifestations of the organized will of the na- 
tion, there is the constant recognition of the 
fact that Christianity is the underlying thought 
of our national life. 

It is in that sense as truly a christian nation 
as is England with its Established Church, or 
as is Turkey a Mohammedan nation with the 
Koran as its officially declared sacred book. 
Indeed, the very fact that it has no Established 
Church makes one of its highest credentials to 
the title of a christian nation. The great 
thought of the Master was that over the human 



22 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

soul there was no earthly sovereign. There is 
no truth which shines more clearly through the 
gospels and the epistles than that of the inde- 
pendence of the human soul. In that great 
forum where are settled the destinies of time 
and eternity each one stands alone with his 
conscience. " Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling." That nation which 
seeks to enforce or support a religion by legis- 
lative enactment fails to recognize the immor- 
tal truth contained in the Master's words, 
" my kingdom is not of this world." The very 
tolerance which some over-sensitive people 
deprecate is one of the best evidences that in 
the framing of our Constitution and the 
foundation of our nation there was recognized 
that truth which underlies Christianity, to-wit, 
that love not law is the supreme thing. We 
enforce no religion; but the voice of the nation 
from its beginning to the present hour is in 
accord with the religion of Christ. Now, 
whatever else may be said of Christianity one 
thing is undisputed and indisputable — that 
christian nations manifest the highest forms of 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 23 

civilized life, and that among professedly 
christian nations those in which the principles 
of Christianity have the utmost freedom and 
power occupy the first place. And surely no- 
where has Christianity such freedom and power 
as in this Kepublic. 

We have, therefore, a nation which gives to 
each citizen the most of liberty and affords the 
best field for his development, which casts upon 
each the responsibility of a ruler, and one in 
which that religion, whose principles are most 
potent in the perfection of human civilization, 
has the largest freedom and power. Is it 
strange, therefore, that this nation is the one 
around which the hopes of humanity cluster? 
Its continuance, its growth, its perfection, 
mean the most for the race. Does it not fol- 
low that upon its citizens rest the most solemn 
responsibilities of citizenship? 

But further, special dangers and difficulties 
attend the development of the Eepublic; dan- 
gers and difficulties which grow out of the very 
peculiarities of its national life, and in the so- 
lution of which each individual is a real and 
potent factor. 



-: 

24 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

In the first place, there .are no restraints 
upon popular action except such as the citi- 
zens themselves have imposed, and there is the 
ever-present danger that, conscious that these 
restraints are self-imposed, the people in some 
time of passion will disregard them — break 
down the constitutional compact made between 
each and all, and do that which cannot be done 
without trespassing upon rights secured by such 
compact. To continue an orderly administra- 
tion, to abide by the Constitution and laws, and 
to seek redress of wrongs, real or supposed, only 
in the manner therein prescribed, are among 
the duties and triumphs of popular govern- 
ment. There is nothing so wicked as a mob; 
nothing more cruel and unreasonable. The 
long lines of burning cars seen in Chicago at 
the time of the Pullman strike, the stripping 
of a woman of her clothing in St. Louis merely 
because she rode in a street-car belonging to an 
obnoxious company, and the flames which re- 
cently rose up around a burning negro in 
Leavenworth are but illustrations. There is 
no one so dangerous as the demagogue, who 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 25 



cries "we, the people," and urges a disregard, 
by force, of laws and the rights secured by those 
laws. Fortunately we have escaped the whirli- 
gigs of revolution which have attended the ef- 
forts of many peoples to establish popular 
government. The sense of order, respect for 
law, and self-restraint, which thus far have 
characterized the American people are among 
the sure prophecies of permanent popular gov- 
ernment, and woe be to the man who seeks to 
influence the passions and forcibly overthrow 
the restraints of law. 

In the second place, we face the dangers 
which come from an heterogeneous population, 
a not inconsiderable fraction of which is of peo- 
ples with no conception of that which is the 
only true liberty — liberty regulated by law — 
peoples who look upon every policeman as an 
enemy, every sheriff as a tyrant, and all the 
forms of law as so many processes of despot- 
ism. The original races which founded this 
nation are still dominant; and yet if one were 
dropped into some of the streets of New York 
or Boston he might wonder if he were in 



26 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

America or Ireland. If he passed through 
many of the mining districts of Pennsylvania 
he might fancy himself in Hungary or Italy. 
In certain parts of Chicago he would believe 
himself in Bohemia or Poland; and the great 
Northwest is a second Scandinavia. To min- 
gle these heterogeneous elements in one homo- 
geneous American people, and to so mingle that 
the good qualities of each shall be preserved 
and the bad qualities of each cast out is one of 
the great tasks of the American people. 

In the third place, we are in the presence of 
those dangers which come from unexampled 
material prosperity. As a nation we are grow- 
ing marvellously rich. More and more we hear 
of the discontents which arise from the unequal 
distribution of this wealth. On the one hand 
is to be seen extravagance and luxury, with its 
often attendant vice; on the other, the bitter- 
ness which comes from envy or a sense of 
wrong. These are dangers to the Kepublic. 

As against these and all like them the indi- 
vidual citizen is the ^Republic's strength and 
hope./ He may become a power. He has a 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 27 

duty. He should so live and act that it may 
be said of him, as of Wellington: 

" That tower of strength, 
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew." 

Upon him rests the burden of overcoming 
these dangers. He may not transfer responsi- 
bility to a government. He is the government. 
It is the citizen's privilege, his duty, his glory, 
to stand firmly against all movements and ef- 
forts to weaken the force of law, to disturb 
social order, or to tear down the Stars and 
Stripes and substitute the red flag of the 
Anarchist./ 

To fuse all heterogeneous elements in the 
crucible of national life, and to so fuse them 
as to leave out all that is base and unworthy, 
require the powerful solvents of education and 
religion. These solvents are found in the in- 
dividual. To him, therefore, we must look for 
the force which will cast out the folly of re- 
garding law as the enemy of liberty, which will 
put an end to habits formed under despotism 
and unsuited to popular government, and 



28 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

which will unite in one common flow all those 
thoughts, purposes, aspirations, and activities 
of the various peoples and races gathering on 
our soil which mean well for the race and for 
the glory of the nation. 

Amid all the displays of wealth, all the social 
inequalities which spring therefrom, the indi- 
vidual may and must stand as a constant wit- 
ness to the unfailing truth that the life is more 
than meat, the man more than the accident of 
riches. " Am I my brother's keeper " finds its 
most magnificent affirmative answer in the 
duty of the American citizen to the nation. 
Picture the glory of this Eepublic if in each 
individual life were fully disclosed respect for 
law, taste for justice, regard for the rights of 
others, remembrance of the poor and afflicted, 
encouragement of education, the helping hand 
to everything that is true, beautiful and good,. 
The ages will see the fulness and glory of the 
picture. The future will not disappoint us. 
The loved poet is the prophet, clear-visioned 
and true, when he sings : 



OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENSHIP 29 

11 Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what Master laid thy keel, 
What Workman wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 
Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 
'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 
'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 
And not a rent made by the gale ! 
In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
In spite of false lights on the shore, 
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
Are all with thee, — are all with thee." 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY 
OBLIGATION 



II 



THE MAINTENANCE OF A GOOD CHARACTER A 
PRIMARY OBLIGATION OF EVERY CITIZEN 

I endeavored to develop in my former lect- 
ure the thought that there were responsibili- 
ties resting upon every citizen of every nation 
by virtue of his citizenship, and that none 
were greater than those which rested upon a 
citizen of this Eepublic. If it be true that 
the responsibility of an American citizen is 
greater than that of a citizen of any other na- 
tion it becomes correspondingly important to 
know what action on his part such responsi- 
bility calls for. To say that an individual is 
responsible, and not define what his responsi- 
bilities are, to say that he owes duties and obli- 
gations and not make clear the nature and ex- 
tent of those duties and obligations is to leave 
the matter less than half disclosed. May he by 

a single act discharge the full measure of his 
33 



34 AMERICAN" CITIZENSHIP 

responsibility and relieve himself from all fur- 
ther obligations? If not, what must he do, 
and how often must he act? 

It is one of the weaknesses of our nature to 
desire to be rid entirely of obligations, or, if 
not rid entirely, to discharge them by a single 
act. We would be benevolent, charitable, but 
would gladly give many dollars in a single sum 
if thereby we could cancel all our obligations 
in that direction. We would be religious, but 
how many would fain limit their religion, like 
the putting on of a clean shirt and the wear- 
ing of the best clothes, to Sunday? We all 
look forward hopefully to an entrance into 
heaven, but wish there was some kindly power 
who could sell us a ticket, receive the price and 
end the transaction at once. This having ever- 
more over us a responsibility, one which never 
fails in its demands, and which continues until 
our latest breath, is something from which we 
willingly turn. 

I wish to impress upon you this afternoon 
the thought that the responsibility of a citizen 
is something which, like the heartbeat, stays 



vOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 35 

with him through life, the care of which is 
essential to his own highest development, and 
in the constant recognition of which is alone 
found the successful life of the nation. And 
in order to develop this thought I must no- 
tice some of the many obligations which rest 
upon the citizen; some of the duties imposed 
upon him. I use the plural nouns, because it 
is a mistake to suppose that there is but a single 
obligation or a single duty to be performed. 
No one can say " I have voted at every election, 
and in so doing I have discharged my entire 
duty to the Eepublic " ; or " I have served 
faithfully as a soldier in the army, and so have 
fulfilled the whole measure of my obligation to 
the nation," any more than a parent can say 
"I have fed my child, and thus have dis- 
charged the full measure of my duty to him." 
The first matter which I shall notice is what 
may be called the obligation of personal char- 
acter. In other words, each citizen owes to the 
nation the duty of maintaining in himself a 
high, clean, moral character. His personal 
morality is a debt to the nation. Indeed, it is 



36 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

a part of the nation's morality. I mention this 
first because it is of primary importance, an 
obligation which is binding upon all citizens, 
and binding at all times and in all places. 
There is no break or cessation in its force, and 
there are no conditions or circumstances under 
or by which any citizen is released from its 
demands. 

It is the one duty which underlies all others ; 
with it we may hope to realize something of 
the greatness and nobility of citizenship in this 
republic; without it the loudest voices of as- 
sumed patriotism are but sounding brass and 
tinkling cymbals. 

What is good character ? It is righteousness 
in the soul. It is the shining jewel of life, 
that to which we all look up, which we all 
love and admire. It makes the chasm which 
separates man from the brute, the " great gulf 
fixed" which the brute cannot cross and the 
man ought not to cross. It is the link which 
binds him to the divine. In flesh we are 
brothers of the beast, living without thought; 
unmoved by conscience, ignorant of purity and 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 37 

dying without hope or remorse. In nobility of 
soul, in elevation of character, we are heirs not 
merely of the ages but of eternity; we clasp 
hands with the Infinite and Eternal, and are 
bold to say " of thee, and thine." 

One seldom sinks so low in the scale of be- 
ing as not to have respect and admiration for 
the high and noble. He never becomes so far 
in love with his own vices as not to be touched 
with respect for him who has them not. "A 
good name is rather to be chosen than great 
riches, and loving favor rather than silver and 
gold." We long for it ourselves, and we joy 
to see it in our homes, our friends, and in all 
with whom we are thrown in contact. With it 
heaven may begin on earth; without it death 
is not needed for admission to hell. 

Who does not wish that death would bring 
him such tribute as this from an English poet 
to an English General? 

Strew not on the hero's hearse 
Gfarlands of a herald's verse : 
Let us hear no words of Fame 
Sounding loud a deathless name : 



38 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

Tell us of no vauntful Glory 
Shouting forth her haughty story. 
All life long his homage rose 
To far other shrine than those. 
" In hoc signo," pale nor dim, 
Lit the battle-field for him, 
And the prize he sought and won, 
Was the Crown for Duty done. 

There is power also in character. I know 
there are many who think that it is enough to 
be smart; that brains are the only thing that 
count in this world ; that you may live and act 
as you please ; that you may safely get the bet- 
ter of others, by ways however crooked, pro- 
vided they do not end in the penitentiary. I 
am not disposed to belittle the value of brains. 
I am not underwriting the idiot. I am aware 
that success often attends those who know noth- 
ing of the Golden Kule, and who remember only 
so much of the Decalogue as is framed in the 
penal statutes. I know there may be brilliancy 
going hand in hand with vice; and yet, after 
all, one of the strongest forces that make for 
individual success is character. Looking back 
through life at the multitudes I have known, 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 39 

I have no hesitation in saying that the majority 
of the successful ones owe whatever of success 
they have attained as much if not more to their 
characters as to their brains. And by far the 
greater number of failures have been due not 
to lack of capacity, or even want of opportu- 
nity, but to the fact that when tested their 
characters failed, and they proved unworthy of 
confidence. So it is that character is not only 
the beautiful thing; it is the valuable thing. 

And that which is true of the individual is 
also true of the nation. Its good character is 
its beauty and strength. If it is to be loved 
and honored it must be honest and just. It 
must stand firm against all wrong, and uphold 
every effort for right; hold evermore the even 
scales of justice and the strong hand of 
honesty. 

That a nation, as such, has a character, and 
is known by it, is obvious. True, it is often 
said that a corporation has neither body to be 
kicked nor soul to be damned, and many seem 
to think that the organization of individuals 
into a corporate body creates an artificial 



40 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

entity destitute of moral qualities. Doubtless 
many corporate acts proceed upon the theory 
that the acting body has no moral qualities, and 
can never be held delinquent in the forum of 
conscience. And that which is said of private 
corporations is also affirmed of that large cor- 
porate body called the nation; but both reason 
and history protest against such an assertion of 
moral poverty. The organization of individu- 
als into a corporate body, whether small or 
great, local or national, is not a movement out- 
side the domain of morals, does not eliminate 
the matter of character, does not create a mere 
machine like a steam-engine unaffected by con- 
science, but simply puts into an organic whole 
the combined consciences, characters and mo- 
rality of all the individual members. You 
never would call that a temperance community, 
half of whose citizens went home every night 
intoxicated, and this notwithstanding the fact 
that its ordinances contained the finest body 
of temperance legislation ever written. Their 
actions would contradict their words. You 
would not think that a moral city on whose 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 41 

every street were the gilded palaces of sin. 
You would not call that an honest community, 
none of whose citizens paid their debts, and 
this although it was full of lawyers; nor that 
a healthy place where only the doctors did a 
thriving business. Historically, we all know 
that nations as well as cities are spoken of. as 
possessed of certain characteristics and accus- 
tomed to certain lines of actions, which char- 
acteristics and actions are simply manifesta- 
tions of their characters. 

; It may be said that character is a personal 
matter, that the maintenance of one which is 
free from stain is the discharge of a duty to 
one's self, or, at most, only to one's family and 
friends, or to God. I do not question the force 
of the obligation in all these directions, but I 
assert that in addition thereto the making and 
keeping of a high and noble character is one 
of the duties of the individual to the nation, 
and to be numbered among the responsibilities 
of citizenship. 

A nation may be regarded in a twofold as- 
pect. In the one it is to be viewed as standing 



42 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

over against the individual, an artificial entity 
separate and distinct from all its citizens, thus 
coming closely within the definition of a cor- 
poration, as given by Chief Justice Marshall; 
in the other, and a perfectly consistent aspect, 
it is to be regarded as an aggregation of indi- 
viduals. In the one it is a unit; in the other 
a collection of units. In either case the moral 
element is the bright coloring of the picture. 
We speak of international law as a body of 
rules regulating the intercourse of nations. 
In this the nation is an artificial entity — an in- 
corporeal being — a unit among nations, one 
whose conduct is to be regulated by certain 
rules adopted by the family of nations. This 
individuality, this singleness of national life, is 
as true of this Republic as of any other nation, 
and this whether we say, The United States of 
America are, or The United States of America 
is. The one expression simply indicates the 
Federal system under which the nation exists. 
A nation in its dealings with other nations is 
bound to certain rules of conduct which it is 
universally conceded should be founded upon 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 43 

justice and righteousness. The declaration of 
scripture, " righteousness exalteth a nation; 
but sin is a reproach to any people," is a sound 
maxim of international law. Indeed, some 
writers have gone so far as to assert that such 
declaration is the foundation upon which that 
law rests, and that by it alone, and without 
regard to actual approval or practical recog- 
nition by the nations, may be determined 
whether a certain course of conduct has the 
sanction of international law. Be that as it 
may, the moral element in a nation's life, look- 
ing at it as one among many nations, is beyond 
dispute. 

Again, while we look upon the nation in its 
relations to other nations and for the purpose 
of determining its international rights and 
duties as a unit, in the other aspect every na- 
tion or tribe is only an assemblage of many in- 
dividuals. As in this aspect it is the aggre- 
gation of the lives and forces of all its citizens, 
so its character is the combined total of their 
characters. If they are all savages, the tribe 
or nation is itself a savage tribe or nation, If 



44 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

all are civilized and enlightened the nation is 
civilized and enlightened. In other words, the 
nation is not simply the numerical aggregation 
of so many individuals, but is the combination 
of all the mental and moral characteristics of 
those individuals. That which can be affirmed 
of all the citizens may with equal truth be af- 
firmed of the nation. You cannot disassociate 
the character of the nation and that of its citi- 
zens. You cannot have an ideally perfect na- 
tion, the citizens of which are thoroughly bad; 
and if all the citizens live up to the highest 
possibilities of their lives you may be sure that 
the nation of which they are citizens stands out 
before the world as one whose ideals are of the 
highest. A good man does not intentionally 
do a bad act. Ten good men acting together 
are equally honest, and so if all the citizens of 
a nation are animated by the one high purpose 
the acts of the nation will likewise be above the 
plane of intentional wrong. 
' Two things may be noticed of the obligation 
in respect to personal character: One, that it 
is universal; and the other, that it is continu- 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 45 

ous. There are certain duties which rest upon 
some citizens and do not rest upon all. Thus, 
some are called upon to render military ser- 
vice ; others to perform the functions of jurors ; 
to discharge duties attaching to certain offices; 
and yet it cannot be said of all citizens of both 
sexes that they are alike amenable to all these 
obligations and called upon to render the same 
services. The varied conditions and circum- 
stances of life impose certain duties upon some 
which are not cast upon others, but the obli- 
gation of personal character is one resting alike 
upon each and all. As one member of the body 
politic his individual character enters into the 
sum total of all characters, and thus goes to 
make up that of the nation. 

It is also continuous, and this because human 
character is itself a continuous thing. It is 
not made up of one or many acts. Indeed, 
actions are but evidences thereof. We judge 
of a man's character by his conduct, although 
we know that the two are not always alike. 
Hypocrisy may exist. There may be not only 
a difference but an absolute antagonism be- 



4:6 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

tween the two. And yet a noble character is 
sure to express itself in actions of a like nature. 
" By their fruits shall ye know them " is the 
best rule we have. And character is the thing 
of value, the enduring fact. It is continuous, 
is part of the life. And this is true both of 
the individual and the nation. 

No one can excuse himself from his duty to 
the State to establish and maintain a .good per- 
sonal character on the plea that he is but one 
of a great multitude, and therefore his single 
life and character count for little or nothing. 
Doubtless the influence of one bad man is more 
obvious in a small than in a large society. If 
a community were composed of but ten per- 
sons, of whom half were good and the other 
half bad, who would not expect the latter half 
to make a powerful impression on the general 
life? While, on the other hand, if it were 
composed of a hundred and only five were bad 
the numerical predominance of the good would 
go far to establish a good character in the or- 
ganized whole. But the presence of even a 
single bad man in any society is an influence 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 47 

for evil. It is a blot on its character. A sin- 
gle flaw in a diamond detracts from its worth, 
and although the great mass of the crystal be 
perfectly pure yet the single flaw is always seen 
and discredits the value. If there be but one 
black sheep in a flock every passer-by notices 
that sheep, and so a single bad man in a com- 
munity becomes an obvious element of dis- 
grace. Nor is it a mere question of appear- 
ance. It is not simply that there is a flaw — a 
black sheep. The influence of that man is 
constantly for evil. " A little leaven leaveneth 
the whole lump," and character is one of those 
potent things which, going out beyond the in- 
dividual, touches for good or for ill all within 
its reach. No man liveth unto himself alone. 
We stamp our impress on the immediate com- 
munity in which we dwell, and through that 
community affect for weal or woe the great na- 
tion of which we are a part. The inexperi- 
enced, the unwary, all become more or less 
affected by a bad man's influence, and over the 
community as a . whole the shadow rests. So 
no man can say that he is but one in a thou- 



48 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

sand and it matters not that he is vile, that 
his character is bad, for not only will his bad 
character cast a shadow but also will his influ- 
ence reach and demoralize far and wide. 

But one may say this is all very true of those 
who are rulers, who hold the offices, who are 
the leaders in society, whose opinions are 
quoted, whose power is felt, but as for me, I 
have neither office nor power, I am never men- 
tioned in the papers, I live an unnoticed life, 
and therefore what difference does my charac- 
ter make in the national life. It is undoubt- 
edly true that the higher the position a man 
holds, and the greater the influence he pos- 
sesses, the more important is his good character 
to the community. All appreciate this. Cor- 
ruption in the President or venality in the 
Supreme Court would be a terrible blow to the 
nation's good name. Licentiousness, if any 
exists, on the part of the nation's represent- 
atives, is carefully concealed; and Mr. Eoberts, 
of Utah, appreciates the fact that even a Con- 
gressman is not permitted to have more than 
one wife at a time. High position carries with 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 49 

it added responsibility. "Noblesse oblige." 
Of him to whom ten talents were given ten 
talents additional were required. Yet it is 
equally true that he to whom a single talent 
was given was not excused for leaving that 
talent idle e No one, however humble, can re- 
lieve himself from responsibility. He may be 
but one out of many, but he is one, and con- 
tributes to make up the general character. He 
pours his breath into the social atmosphere, 
and if that breath be poisonous he to some 
extent contaminates the air. What would be 
the standing of this nation if only its presi- 
dents and judges were pure and honest ? Does 
any one suppose that the character of the na- 
tion would be determined by the few holding 
those positions? Indeed, how can we expect 
that they who occupy representative places will 
continue pure and honest if the great mass of 
the people are not? If the atmosphere in 
which these few live is filled with poison can 
they escape its effect? Are they not in fact 
upheld and strengthened in good conduct by 
their surroundings of good character? Is not 



50 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

the integrity of our officials largely owing to 
the integrity of the American people? I have 
been thirty-six years on the bench and no one, 
directly or indirectly, by word of month or let- 
ter, or in any other way, ever proposed, sug- 
gested, or intimated that any decision I might 
be called on to make would be for my benefit 
pecuniarily, politically, socially, or otherwise. 
If I had had any desire to do wrong I should 
have had to seek someone to corrupt me. In 
order to be tempted I should have had to invite 
the tempter, instead of waiting for the tempta- 
tion. Would I have been able to say this if the 
great body of the people among whom my life 
has been cast had been corrupt ? Could I have 
hoped to escape temptation to do wrong? So 
that, after all, the clean lives of those in posi- 
tion are not a little owing to the good char- 
acter of those who place them there, and who 
support them there. 

We are all proud of the fact that this Ke- 
public has maintained so high a character dur- 
ing the century of its existence. While there 
are doubtless many things in its history which 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 51 

we wish were not there, yet we rejoice to believe 
that generally, both in its inner life and in its 
dealings with other nations, it has striven for 
those things which make for truth, justice, 
honesty and purity. While we are justly proud 
of all its material development, its increase in 
population, its growth in wealth, and in all 
those things which go to make up its outward 
tangible prosperity, we rejoice the more in 
that which it has done to uphold before the 
world ideals of the highest kind. We point 
to its efforts to meliorate the hardships of 
war, and all that it has done in the way of 
arbitration and peace; to that which it has 
done to protect its citizens against oppression 
and wrong, wherever they may have chanced to 
be; to all that it has spoken and done for lib- 
erty; to the grandeur of that civil war, waged 
to put an end to slavery within its borders ; to 
its assumption of the burdens of war in behalf 
of a people struggling for liberty, a people 
bound to us by no ties of blood, yet so situated 
that action in their behalf was simply writing 
the blessed word neighbor into the vocabulary 



52 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

of nations; and to countless other acts of lofty 
character, and are proud of our country. And 
let us ever remember in our rejoicing, that the 
sources and causes of every noble thing in our 
country's life are to be found in the thoughts 
and lives of individual citizens who have suc- 
ceeded in transferring something of their own 
high characters into the life of the nation. 
And so remembering, let us ever strive to dis- 
charge one of the responsibilities of citizenship 
by maintaining in our own lives a like lofty 
character. 

As a nation we stand face to face with a 
great fact. The century and more of our na- 
tional life has been lived in a career of self- 
development, and with an isolation from other 
nations suggested by the words of wisdom in 
the farewell address of the Father of His Coun- 
try. We have stood aloof from the great events 
of the other hemisphere, endeavoring to main- 
tain a position of equal justice to all, but of 
equal separation from all, content to uphold 
that which we call the Monroe Doctrine, the 
separation and consecration of this continent 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 53 

to those ideas of popular government which lie 
at the foundation of this nation's life. But we 
enter the new century under changed condi- 
tions. Commerce, whose mandate no law can 
stay, whose excursions no legislature can 
check, is bringing us, whether we will or no, 
into the great council of nations. The ac- 
cumulated products of our territory are pour- 
ing into every quarter of the globe, seeking 
a market. Our marvellous inventive genius, 
showing itself in wonderful mechanical con- 
trivances, is looking beyond the bounds of the 
new continent for places in which it may find 
some adequate compensation. Japan, one na- 
tion in the silent Orient, felt the touch of our 
national activity, and she has passed out of ob- 
scurity into the great life of the world, and 
to-day stands as one of its magnificent factors. 
China, that great mass of an effete civilization, 
moving yet moving slowly even in the wondrous 
disturbances which now agitate it, turns with 
abundant faith to this nation for help in its 
time of distress. So, whether we wished it or 
not, we are forced into a position where our 



54 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

national life is not simply to be considered in 
reference to those within our territory but as 
an important and dominant fact in the great 
councils of the world. Shall we in these coun- 
cils, and in our dealings with others, follow the 
Talleyrand notion that language is something 
to conceal rather than to express thought, or 
shall we stand as one nation at least whose pur- 
poses and life are measured by absolute truth 
and honesty — a nation which has no secondary 
and concealed motive in its dealings with oth- 
ers; a nation which always says what it means 
and means what it says, and strives to have 
every utterance in accord with the highest 
dictates of truth and justice? 

Many of our citizens are to-day troubled by 
the fact that, as the outcome of the late war 
with Spain, we have taken distant islands with 
a large population of a character illy in accord 
with that of the Anglo-Saxon. We wonder 
what the outcome of this venture will be. 
Earnest discussion fills the papers, the halls of 
Congress, and comes into the great tribunal of 
the nation. What are the bounds of our power 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION 55 

over those people, and what must be, in accord 
with our constitutional limitations, the measure 
of our duties to them? As one of that tri- 
bunal, before which some of those questions are 
pending, I can, of course, say nothing as to 
its decisions, but I may say that far above all 
questions of constitutional limitation, far 
above all the problems which courts may be 
called on to solve, is the hopeful and assuring 
thought that a solemn sense of responsibility 
fills the American soul. If they who to-day 
compose the great body of recognized American 
people shall lift their own lives up into the 
purity demanded by high character, if they 
shall measure their intercourse with the dwell- 
ers in these insular possessions by the rules of 
true manhood, it is a secondary matter what 
may be the decisions of the courts, the policy 
of the Administration, or the action of Con- 
gress, for we may be sure that the nation will 
move, with or without constitutional amend- 
ment, along that great highway which is full 
of blessing to all within its jurisdiction, and 
to the great world which surrounds it. 



56 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

I want, with all the solemnity of a life that 
has been earnestly lived, with all that comes 
from years of experience in varied directions, 
to appeal to you, young gentlemen, lovers of 
your country, loyal to all its best interests, with 
unbounding faith in its future, willing to live 
and to serve, and to die if need be for its honor 
and glory, I want to press upon you this after- 
noon the thought that one grand way in which 
all can do abundantly for its glory and life is 
in building up within yourselves that pure and 
lofty personal character which makes the indi- 
vidual loved, which gives him power, and 
causes his life to become a blessing to his com- 
munity, his nation, and the world. 

The dawn of the new century is a great oc- 
casion. I wish it were my privilege to enter 
into its marvellous opportunities, to take part 
in the wondrous works which it is to see and 
to do. That privilege belongs to youth — to 
educated youth, to eager, aspiring, consecrated 
youth; youth which sees the sunlight flush 
with its crimson glow the eastern skies and will 
watch with attendant hearts that glow deepen- 



GOOD CHARACTER A PRIMARY OBLIGATION" 57 

ing and strengthening into noontide splendor 
and glory. And yet if I may not be with you 
to share and see that which is to come, I may 
to-day join you in Whittier's thanksgiving and 
prayer : 

Our father's God ! From out whose hand 
The centuries fall like grains of sand, 
We meet to-day, united, free, 
And loyal to our land and Thee, 
To thank Thee for the era done 
And trust Thee for the opening one. 

For art and labor met in truce, 
For beauty made the bride of use, 
We thank Thee ; but withal we crave 
The austere virtues strong to save— 
The honor proof to place or gold 
The manhood never bought or sold . 

O make Thou us through centuries long, 
In peace secure, in justice strong ; 
Around our gift of freedom draw 
The safeguards of our righteous law ; 
And, cast in some diviner mold, 
Let the new cycle shame the old. 



SERVICE A RESPONSIBILITY OF 
CITIZENSHIP 



Ill 

SERVICE A RESPONSIBILITY OF CITIZENSHIP 

A second matter in respect to the responsi- 
bilities of a citizen, worthy of notice, is the 
duty of service. It may be said that in a cer- 
tain sense this form of obligation attends every 
relation and is binding on both parties thereto. 
There is no one so high and none so low as 
not to owe the duty of service. " I came not 
to be ministered unto but to minister unto oth- 
ers," said the Master, and to indicate the nobil- 
ity and worth of service, He added, "he who 
would be chief est among you let him be servant 
of all." But while service may be said to at- 
tend every relation and be one element in its 
obligations yet the kinds and modes of service 
vary with the relation. The service which a 
child is called upon to render to its parent is 
different from that which a citizen owes to the 

nation. And so I proceed to mention some of 
61 



62 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

the kinds of service which the citizen owes to 
the nation, and shall then consider the spirit 
and manner in which those services should be 
rendered. 

There are certain services which are willing- 
ly rendered. For instance, the average Amer- 
ican is willing to hold office, discharge its duties 
and receive its emoluments. We seldom have 
to force a man to take office. Undoubtedly the 
discharge of the duties of an office to which one 
is called by his fellow-citizens is an act of ser- 
vice to the nation. It may be a conspicuous 
act and sometimes quite profitable. At any 
rate, a glamour surrounds the holding of office, 
which makes it very acceptable to many. So, 
it seems almost a matter of supererogation to 
say that when one is elected or appointed to an 
office he owes to the nation the duty of dis- 
charging its functions. Yet holding and faith- 
fully performing all the duties of an office is 
not merely a privilege ; it is an obligation, and 
one whose neglect may be punished criminally. 
I have never known an instance of a man being 
prosecuted for refusing to accept the office of 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 63 

United States Senator. No man need lie 
awake worrying about his liability to criminal 
process if he declines to accept the office of gov- 
ernor. On the contrary, he is more likely to 
be applauded for repudiating the obligation 
which election to office imposes than to be 
prosecuted therefor. There are quite a num- 
ber always willing to take the burden off his 
shoulders. And yet there are records of judi- 
cial prosecution and punishment for the failure 
to accept and discharge the duties of certain 
minor offices. The position of road overseer or 
constable is not congenial to many, and not 
unnaturally they seek to escape therefrom. 
Tenacious of the right to hold each one to the 
duties of an office to which he has been elected 
the English Parliament has a pleasant way of 
enabling a man to resign his seat therein. 
While private business may not justify such 
resignation it is held that he may vacate that 
office if he accepts another of equal dignity; 
and so when a member of Parliament de- 
sires to resign he secures an appointment to 
the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, 



64 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

and then may surrender his place in Parlia- 
ment. 

Another case in which there is a duty of ser- 
vice, and one enforced by law, is that connected 
with the military and naval forces of the na- 
tion. He who enters either, whether volun- 
tarily or by means of a draft, must endure all 
its dangers and toils. He may not avoid them 
without rendering himself amenable to punish- 
ment. This proceeds upon the theory that the 
nation, to protect its life and enforce its laws, 
may compel the active effort of all its citizens. 
But believing that the time will come when the 
war-drum shall beat no longer and the battle- 
flags be furled, I do not stop to enlarge upon 
the special duties of military service. 

One important service is connected with the 
administration of justice. We are called upon 
to act as witnesses and jurors. How many 
gladly avoid the discharge of those duties ? It 
is astonishing when a jury list is summoned 
to find how many sick people there are on it. 
I do not wonder that they are sick. I think I 
should be. The sickness of a juror is like the 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 65 

Sunday headache, which used to be so common 
in college. The jury system as at present ad- 
ministered, in many States at least, is little 
more than a relic of semi-civilized conditions. 
The juror is too often treated as a criminal, or 
suspected of an intention to become one. Shut 
up at night, as if for fear he may become a 
fugitive from justice, given a compensation 
scarcely exceeding that which a day laborer re- 
ceives, listening for days to witnesses who are 
sometimes stupid and often confusing, annoyed 
by the wearisome wrangles between attorneys 
concerning the admission or rejection of testi- 
mony, I do not wonder that a business man 
seeks to avoid its burdens, and I hope that the 
time will come when a juror will be treated as 
though he were an honest man, denied no more 
of the comforts of home than the judge him- 
self, paid that which is an adequate compensa- 
tion for his time and when the unanimity now 
required and which prompts to all the strenu- 
ous effort to guard against undue influences 
upon one, or to secure the kindly assistance of 
one — a unanimity which is called for in scarce- 



66 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

ly any other tribunal on the face of the earth 
— shall give way to a system in which the con- 
currence of a reasonable majority of the jurors 
shall determine the verdict. So, a witness is 
often insulted by opposing counsel. He is in- 
terrogated as though he were presumably a 
liar, and questions are put to him with insinua- 
tions and in a manner which every honorable 
man feels like resenting. But notwithstanding 
all the disagreeable features which attend ser- 
vice as a witness or juror it is an obligation 
resting upon the citizen, and one which as a 
duty he should not ignore. Let him strive for 
reformation, but meantime not make himself a 
delinquent. 

Again, there is service at the primaries and 
the polls. No more important duty rests upon 
the citizen. The great problem of government 
by the people depends for its wise solution upon 
the fidelity with which this service is per- 
formed. I know there are many to whom a 
primary is a matter of no moment, a campaign 
nothing better than a circus, an election day 
only a holiday ; but to him who appreciates the 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 67 

value of government by the people, who knows 
that here, in the first instance, at least, the 
policy of such government is to be settled, who 
appreciates the dignity of American citizenship 
and his personal responsibility for the success- 
ful outcome of the great problem; to him the 
primary and the polls are sacred places, and 
the service he renders there is as important as 
any rendered on the battle-field or in the halls 
of Congress. Unfortunately, too often, the 
one who is most competent to render efficient 
service in these directions is the one who 
neglects it. He does not like the atmosphere 
of the primary or the surroundings of the polls. 
Conscious of education and intelligence he is 
afflicted with a daintiness which leads him to 
avoid the touch of common people. Then 
when the outcome does not accord with his 
views he mourns over the decadence of the 
American people, and the infelicities of our 
politics. 

One service more I must mention, and that 
is service in the payment of taxes. I have yet 
to meet the man whose heart was filled with 



68 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

gratitude at the privilege of paying taxes. 
While many unhesitatingly pay them and feel 
that in so doing they are discharging but a 
common obligation of all, you are not likely to 
find one overflowing with effusion of joy be- 
cause he has been permitted to contribute so 
much money to the government. Every one 
knows that the pecuniary burdens we call taxes 
must be borne; the individual must contribute 
in order that the government may continue, 
and yet the ordinary tax-payer is willing that 
his neighbor shall bear this burden. His 
patriotism in this respect is like that of Arte- 
mus Ward in the civil war, a willingness to 
have all his wife's relations drafted. There 
has always been great difference of opinion as 
to the things to be taxed and the modes of tax- 
ation. Out of these differences have arisen 
some of the political parties of the day, and 
disputes concerning these questions have been 
sharp both in legislative and judicial halls. 
There is a constant effort by many to shift by 
legislation the burdens of taxation to the shoul- 
ders of others, and when they fail in that legis- 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 69 

lation they pursue many a curious and winding 
way in efforts to escape those burdens. 

I have enumerated these various forms in 
which service is to be rendered by the citizen 
to the State in order that the scope thereof 
may be clearly understood. I do not mean that 
these are all the services which are due from 
the citizen, but they are enough to present the 
matter to the mind. As is obvious, these obli- 
gations of service are not all continuous. They 
are not pressing upon the citizen at all times, 
nor do they rest upon all alike. And yet they 
are services which may be called for, and in 
respect to them I notice these things : 

First, whenever due they should be willingly 
rendered, for every failure impairs to that ex- 
tent the ability of the nation to do and be for 
the citizen all that it should do and be. The 
organization of the political institution which 
we call the nation is for the purpose of secur- 
ing the highest well-being of all the individuals 
composing it. As declared in the Preamble to 
the Constitution of the United States, it is or- 
dained to "establish justice, ensure domestic 



70 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity." In order that the nation may the 
most perfectly discharge its duty to the peo- 
ple, and carry into full effect the purpose for 
which it was organized it is essential that each 
citizen and all citizens should render the 
various services which each and all are called 
upon to render, whenever they are so called 
upon; and that they should render them will- 
ingly. They should lift their eyes above the 
narrow horizon of their own convenience, their 
own temporary comfort or annoyance, and see 
that in the performance of those duties they 
are simply doing their part in helping the na- 
tion to its highest usefulness, and securing to 
it the capacity for the greatest blessings to 
themselves and their posterity. 

Again, it should be intelligent service. The 
workings of that great machine called the gov- 
ernment are not mechanical. Its various parts 
are not fastened to a central wheel by pulleys 
and bolts, wheels and cogs, so that when once 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 71 

that central wheel is started all move in unison 
with mechanical precision. The forces which 
permeate and move the life of the nation are 
intellectual and moral. Each one who takes 
his part in doing any service to the nation 
must, in order to fully discharge his duty, act 
with all the intelligence he possesses. Science 
may measure and control the forces which 
move inert lifeless matter, but science can put 
no chain or band around those forces which 
start within the human soul and which prompt 
each individual to his activities. In order that 
the aggregate of the forces which move the na- 
tion may work out the best it is all important 
that he who moves any of them, or touches the 
great springs of its life, shall have a clear un- 
derstanding of what he is doing and the re- 
sults of his action, and so become an intelli- 
gent factor in that life. Very different is the 
condition of a nation like this from that which 
obtains in an absolute monarchy where the 
directing force, the intellectual power, is cen- 
tred in an individual or a handful while the 
great mass of the individuals are simply pawns 



72 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

moved by the master minds on the national 
chessboard. Here each man is an active ruler. 
Upon him rests the responsibility of govern- 
ment, and out of the commingled thoughts and 
purposes of all comes the final movement of the 
nation. Nor is the obligation of intelligent 
service limited to the higher forms of service 
and not binding on those who discharge those 
of less importance. It may require a superior 
talent, a larger knowledge, to make a great 
general than a private soldier, but all history 
attests that the intelligent soldier, the one who 
discharges the duties of that service thought- 
fully, is of far more value than one who is stu- 
pid and ignorant. In battle, as everywhere 
else, the personal factor becomes of no small 
moment, and intelligent service there on the 
part of all is, like intelligent service elsewhere, 
a help to success. 

And if intelligent service is called for from 
any, surely it is from those who have had the 
benefit of a liberal education. The hod-carrier, 
the section hand, the street-cleaner, may say 
that his range of knowledge is limited. He has 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 73 

not had the opportunities of others for study, 
but the college graduate can make no such de- 
fence. Of all citizens he is the one to whom 
is given the largest opportunity for acquiring 
knowledge, and is the last man in the nation 
who can plead ignorance as an excuse for lack 
of intelligent service. He, at least in this re- 
spect, is charged with the highest responsibil- 
ity. He goes out from college halls an am- 
bassador from a great court of learning, whose 
diploma he carries as his credentials. He is 
received, and rightfully received, as possessed 
of knowledge and the power which comes there- 
from. Ignorance is to him an unconscionable 
plea. The graduate from this university who 
when called upon to render service writes ig- 
norance as his excuse for mistake casts a libel 
on his alma mater. If you have no moral 
character you may be a scoundrel, but never 
ask the community to believe that a Yale grad- 
uate is a fool. 

Again, it should be unselfish and conscien- 
tious service. I endeavored to show in my last 
lecture that high personal character is one of 



74 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

the obligations of the citizen, and that it is all- 
important to the life of the nation. Along the 
same line of thought, it must be said that un- 
selfish and conscientious action is one of the 
important elements in a full discharge of the 
obligations of service. The thought that it is 
the prime purpose to get as much out of life 
and give as little to it as possible is unworthy 
a manly man, and especially one who has been 
given great advantages in preparing for life. 
A citizen should be conscientious in the dis- 
charge not only of duties of high position but 
in the discharge of every kind of service called 
for. We expect a president, a governor, or a 
judge, to be conscientious. We have an equal 
right to call upon the humblest citizen to be 
likewise. He should be conscientious as a 
juror, conscientious as a road overseer, con- 
scientious in the discharge of his duties as a 
voter and in the payment of taxes. That there 
is not infrequently great lacking in this regard 
in minor matters is obvious. 

A friend told me this of the experience of 
one of the States : It had been the habit in that 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 75 

State to leave the listing of personal property 
to the unsworn statement of the tax-payer. 
The smallness of the assessment roll attracted 
attention, and finally an act was passed requir- 
ing the return by each tax-payer to be verified 
by his oath. The first year the aggregate re- 
turn of personal property was doubled, but the 
year thereafter it diminished a little, and stead- 
ily from year to year it grew less and less. As 
the State was one where property changes are 
slight the only satisfactory explanation was 
that the first year the conscience of the tax- 
payer pricked him and he made something like 
a truthful statement. The next year his con- 
science hardened and he was willing to drop a 
little, and so from year to year the hardening 
process went on and the assessment roll went 
down. 

Does any one at all familiar with our na- 
tional life doubt that that which is suggested 
by this illustration finds abundant repetition 
everywhere ? The frequent justification is that 
a neighbor does the same, or that there is a 
common understanding in the community to 
that effect. 



76 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

In another direction is also witnessed a fre- 
quent disregard of the obligations of conscien- 
tious service, and that is in judicial proceed- 
ings. The juror yields his judgment to his 
prejudices. Especially is this true (and true 
not merely of jurors but of witnesses) in those 
actions in which there is an effort by law to 
restrain the vices of the community. It has 
sometimes been, perhaps not extravagantly, 
stated that prohibition laws are the greatest in- 
centive to perjury that the country affords. 
Certain it is that offences against those laws are 
exceedingly difficult of successful prosecution. 
The memory of witnesses is lamentably weak 
and the reasonable doubts of jurors are multi- 
plied and magnified. Both witnesses and ju- 
rors are parleying with conscience, and their 
action too often springs from objection to the 
law rather than from a failure of memory or 
ignorance of testimony. 

And here I must notice that which is attract- 
ing growing attention, to-wit, the so-called 
commercialism in politics. That it exists, that 
it is an evil, that it is freighted with peril, no 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 77 

intelligent person questions. Possibly the ex- 
tent to which it exists is exaggerated. It is 
easy for a beaten party or candidate to charge 
that defeat is owing to the use of money. 
These things must also be borne in mind : The 
real cost of carrying on a political campaign is 
great ; halls are to be hired ; speakers are to be 
employed; brass bands and pyrotechnique dis- 
plays attend parades and conventions; enor- 
mous masses of publications are circulated. 
And these campaigns are carried on in modern 
military methods, with a general commander, 
whose various lieutenants and agents take their 
bidding from the central authority and act as 
officers of the great political army. In this re- 
spect campaigns differ from those of fifty years 
ago, for they were more in the nature of spon- 
taneous inexpensive movements by separate 
communities having a common purpose. Now 
a campaign along these new lines necessarily 
involves large expenditures, and expenditures 
which cannot be denounced as corrupt. 
Whether in all respects this mode of campaign- 
ing is better than that which existed in days 



78 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

gone by may be doubted, but it is far from just 
to denounce the expenditures made in conse- 
quence thereof as evidences of corruption. It 
must also be remembered that the pecuniary 
interests which are involved are enormous, that 
money is more abundant, that many interested 
can easily afford and are willing to contribute, 
so that large sums pass into the hands of party 
managers, and with their possession comes the 
temptation to make a display. And yet, mak- 
ing all fair allowances for these various mat- 
ters, no one can doubt that money is becoming 
a factor, and a hurtful factor, in our politics. 
Side by side with this is also the fact that, with 
the change in our capital cities in the styles 
and modes of living, the cost thereof has be- 
come greater, salaries of public officials are 
more inadequate, and there is the ever-pressing 
temptation to utilize official position in such 
way that one may go out of politics no worse 
off at least pecuniarily than when he went in. 
I have not time to amplify on this subject, to 
detail the evidences of the existence of this evil, 
to repeat the stories which are found in the 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 79 

daily papers, stories many of which I am glad 
to believe are but stories, though perhaps too 
often, like the historical novel, fiction founded 
upon fact. What I do wish to emphasize is 
that this evil exists and that it is more of an 
evil than it was in days gone by. 

As against this, as well as against all other 
like evils, I appeal to the American sense of the 
value and duty of high, conscientious service. 
Each one must realize that so far as he stands 
proof against its seductive power, keeping him- 
self aloof from its contaminating touch, he is 
doing his part to stay its curse and take the 
bitterness of the sting from the frequent sneer 
that in American politics the dollar is more 
than the man. We must impress upon all the 
solemn fact that the voting booth is the temple 
of American institutions. No single tribe or 
family is chosen to watch the sacred fires ever- 
more burning on its altars, or to tend in its 
services. Each one of us is a priest. To each 
is given the care of the ark of the covenant. 
Each one ministers at its altars. He who min- 
isters at those altars with hands stained with 



80 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

corruption is like one who sitteth at the table 
of the Lord and eateth and drinketh unworth- 
ily, and thus eateth and drinketh damnation. 

Along the street 

The shadows meet 
Of Destiny, whose hands conceal 

The molds of fate 

That shape the State, 
And make or mar the common weal. 

Around I see 

The powers that be, 
I stand by Empire's primal springs ; 

And princes meet 

In every street, 
And hear the tread of uncrowned kings ! 

Not lightly fall 

Beyond recall 
The written scrolls a breath can float ; 

The crowning fact, 

The kingliest act, 
Of Freedom is the Freeman's vote ! 

Our hearts grow cold, 

We lightly hold 
A right which brave men died to gain ; 

The stake, the cord, 

The axe, the sword, 
Grim nurses at its birth of pain. 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 81 

The shadow rend, 

And o'er us bend, 
O martyrs, with your crowns and palms ; 

Breathe through these throngs 

Your battle songs, 
Your scaffold prayers and dungeon psalms ! 

Look from the sky, 

Like God's great eye, 
Thou solemn moon, with searching beam, 

Till in the sight 

Of thy pure light 
Our mean self-seekings meaner seem. 

Shame from our hearts 

Unworthy arts, 
The fraud designed, the purpose dark ; 

And smite away 

The hands we lay 
Profanely on the sacred ark. 

To party claims 

And private aims 
Reveal that august face of Truth, 

Whereto are given 

The age of heaven, 
The beauty of immortal youth. 

So shall our voice 
Of sovereign choice 
Swell the deep bass of duty done. 



82 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

And strike the key 
Of time to be, 
When Grod and man shall speak as one ! 

I do not doubt the outcome. ISTor do I rest 
my faith on Matthew Arnold's idea of a saving 
remnant. The great body of the American 
people are still keenly alive to a sense of the 
solemnity of this obligation of service. They 
do not more than half believe the stories that 
fill our press. They are a patient, enduring 
people. They willingly condone offences, be- 
lieving that the shame which attends will be 
both punishment to the individual and check 
against repetition. But if ever convinced that 
commercialism is controlling our political life 
they will rise in their wrath and take swiftest 
and sternest vengeance on all who are in fact 
or are believed to be tainted with this curse. 

Finally, let me add, live your life in the full 
sense of the nobility of the citizen's service. It 
is, of course, trite to say that every honest ser- 
vice is noble, to whomsoever and in whatsoever 
cause rendered; but if we link in our minds 
the service we render with the cause to which 



OBLIGATION OF SERVICE 83 

it is rendered we may often have a clearer 
vision of its real nobility. We see not merely 
that we are rendering willing, intelligent, and 
conscientious service, and therefore have the 
peace of mind which comes from the conscious- 
ness of duty done, but we become filled with 
the greatness of that to which the service is 
rendered, and whose well-being finds its highest 
promise in the fidelity of our efforts, and so 
there comes to us as in no other way a realiza- 
tion of the nobility of that service. And this 
sense of nobility extends to every kind of ser- 
vice the citizen may render, no matter whether 
it may be what the world calls high or what it 
may regard as low. The end ennobles the 
work. Paul had that idea when, in the 12th 
Chapter of the 1st Corinthians, he illustrated 
the co-working of all christians to the same end 
in different services by a comparison of the 
body with all its members, saying : " But now 
are they many members, yet but one body. 
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have 
no need of thee : nor again the head to the feet, 
I have no need of you. Nay, much more those 



84 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

members of the body, which seem to be more 
feeble, are necessary. . . . And whether 
one member suffer, all the members suffer with 
it; or one member be honored, all the members 
rejoice with it" Equally, therefore, may he 
who is rendering the humblest form of service 
to this great Eepublic rejoice as being a co- 
worker with him who is performing the high- 
est, assured that without fidelity on his part 
the efforts of others will lose something of their 
value, and sure that he equallv with them is 
a part of this nation and a maker of its destiny. 
In the days of the Caesars "I am a Roman 
citizen" was a proud, exultant declaration. 
It was protection. It was more; it was honor 
and glory. Twenty centuries of advancing 
civilization have given to the declaration, "I 
am an American citizen " a higher and a nobler 
place. It stands to-day in the forefront of 
earthly titles. It proclaims a sharing in the 
greatest opportunities. It is a trumpet-call to 
the highest fidelity. It is the diploma of the 
world, the highest which humanity has to 
bestow. 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 



IV 

OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 

The next form of obligation to which I wish 
to call your attention is that of obedience. It 
is a necessity of every organized community 
that there should be laws and rules to control 
the actions of individuals. Without them a 
state of anarchy would exist, each man being a 
law unto himself, and the diverse purposes and 
wishes bringing about constant collisions. It 
is true laws and rules place some restraint on 
human action, but it does not follow therefrom 
that they at all interfere with liberty in its 
truest sense. For liberty does not imply li- 
cense, absolute freedom of action, but simply 
the right to do that which one deems best, sub- 
ject to the limitation that it does not interfere 
with the equal rights of other members of the 
community. Of course a Eobinson Crusoe 

may have absolute freedom, for alone on an 
87 



88 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

island there is no one having rights to be 
abridged by anything he may do. And, paren- 
thetically I may say, if every one who feels that 
the slight restraints of the law are trespasses 
upon his liberty would hie away to some lonely 
island in the South Seas and there luxuriate 
in the liberty he craves, our benedictions would 
go with him as well as our prayers that he never 
return. But when even his man Friday comes 
to live with Crusoe then his absolute freedom 
of action must stop on the hither side of Fri- 
day's rights. And each additional person com- 
ing to live with or near him, having his own 
rights may by virtue thereof somewhat restrain 
Crusoe's action. So it is that the more there 
are in a community and the more closely they 
live together, the more numerous are the neces- 
sary restraints upon the action of each. This 
necessity of restraint is the source of that mys- 
terious and illy defined attribute of government 
which we call the police power, a power which 
always has a wider field of action in a city than 
in a village, and in a village than in a farming 
neighborhood. 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 89 

In a government by the people law is the ex- 
pressed will of the majority. Back of it stands 
the power of the organized community. That 
power exists to compel obedience to law, and to 
many, therefore, law stands simply as the rep- 
resentation of force; something which must be 
yielded to, not because there is a pleasure in 
so doing but because there is a necessity there- 
for and unfortunate penalties for not yielding. 
So, to them law is something which always 
stands in antagonism. The officers of the law 
are their enemies, and they feel a secret pleas- 
ure whenever they see them baffled in their ef- 
forts to execute it. It is popular to sneer at 
and ridicule the policeman, although without 
him we would be at the mercy of the worst 
elements. 

It often happens that the meaning of a law 
is debatable, is disputed. Within the nation 
we have tribunals to determine such matters of 
dispute, but if a tribunal decides the meaning 
against our contention, not infrequently then 
that tribunal becomes itself the object of an- 
tagonism, and we look upon it as simply an- 



90 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

other instrumentality by which we are coerced 
into that which we do not wish and declare 
that we have become again the victims of mere 
arbitrary power. 

I may here note in passing the difference be- 
tween that law which obtains within a nation, 
or municipal law as it is called, and interna- 
tional law, the body of rules which regulate the 
intercourse of nations. In respect to the lat- 
ter, there is neither tribunal to determine what 
is the law, nor organized force to compel obedi- 
ence. The separate nations construe for them- 
selves, and, when selfish interests require, abide 
by their own interpretations, or defiantly re- 
pudiate the law entirely. The contrast be- 
tween that condition and that of law within a 
nation where there is a tribunal to determine 
the meaning and a power to enforce obedience 
is obvious, 

I do not mean to say that there are no cir- 
cumstances under which disobedience to law 
may become a duty. Half a century ago there 
was great discussion in this country upon the 
question of the "higher law," and that there 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 91 

is a higher law I have no doubt. The law of 
righteousness carries a demand of obedience 
above any mere human enactment, but never- 
theless the instances in which the higher law 
will conflict with the law of the nation are so 
rare that it does not seem profitable to use much 
time in discussing them. It certainly ill be- 
comes one as an excuse for disobedience to create 
a mere imaginary conflict between municipal 
and the higher law. Human nature is so consti- 
tuted that when a law does not suit us we look 
with great complacency upon the suggestion 
that it conflicts with some higher law, and that, 
therefore, we ought to disobey it. Often one 
fancies that he has grave religious doubts when 
it is a mere matter of a disordered liver. As 
Mrs. Bateman, one of the characters in " The 
Farringdons," says of husbands in general, and 
hers in particular : 

" The very best of them don't properly 
know the difference between their souls and 
their stomachs; and they fancy that they are 
a-wrestling with their doubts, when really it is 
their dinners that are a-wrestling with them. 



92 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

Now take Bateman hisself, and a kinder hus- 
band or a better Methodist never drew breath; 
yet so sure as he touches a bit of pork, he be- 
gins to worry hisself about the doctrine of Elec- 
tion till there's no living with him. . . . 
He'll sit in the front parlor and engage in 
prayer for hours at a time, till I says to him, 
c Bateman/ says I, ' Fd be ashamed to go 
troubling the Lord with a prayer when a pinch 
o' carbonate of soda would set things straight 
again. " 

One may often wisely solve the doubtful 
conflict in his mind between duties as did the 
good Quaker on shipboard when the vessel was 
attacked by pirates. A man of peace, he would 
do no fighting, but as he saw a pirate climb- 
ing up the side of the vessel by a rope, he said 
to him, " Friend, dost thou wish the rope ? 
Thou shalt have it," and suiting the action to 
the word drew his knife, cut the rope and 
dropped both rope and pirate into the ocean. 

It must not be supposed that obedience im- 
plies a mere passive condition — a simple re- 
fraining from doing things forbidden by stat- 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 93 

ute. It is an active virtue. The law com- 
mands as well as forbids; and obedience re- 
quires the doing of the act which the law 
commands as well as the not doing that which 
it forbids. As I indicated in my last lecture, 
the nation calls for various kinds of service, 
and in the truest sense a citizen never fulfils 
his obligation of obedience unless he renders 
those services. He may not claim that he has 
discharged his whole obligation by proof that 
he has never broken a single clause of the penal 
code. It is the willing active effort that makes 
obedience a virtue. Submission is not the 
whole. That may spring from indifference or 
cowardice. It indicates no appreciation of 
the dignities or duties of citizenship. In a 
certain sense it may be true, as the blind Mil- 
ton wrote, "they also serve who only stand 
and wait," but in this eager, aspiring, tumultu- 
ous day of ours, in this stirring, pushing, 
pressing life of the Eepublic, he alone enters 
fully into the spirit of obedience who throws 
himself joyfully and earnestly forward in the 
effort to do all that the nation calls for, and 



94 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

also to secure like action from others. "The 
letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." One's 
own attitude toward the law is one thing. His 
efforts to bring others into the same attitude 
another and equally important. He must ever- 
more lift up the law as something sacred, not 
to be thrown down and trampled in the dust 
by any one or any party. 

So I pass on to say that the duty upon the 
part of every one to obey the laws of the nation 
arises because, in the first place, such obedience 
insures peace and order. If all obeyed, the 
criminal courts, now so busy, would find their 
occupation, like Othello's, gone, and a peace 
would prevail through the community — a 
peace not like the order which reigned in War- 
saw, stifling activities and indicating stagna- 
tion of life, but a peace in which all the activ- 
ities of all the individuals of the nation would 
have fullest play. 

Obedience is a duty because, in the second 
place, in this government by the people all 
take part in the enactment of the laws. When 
many individuals engage in a common enter- 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 95 

prise whose particular actions are to be settled 
by the judgment of the majority, it is the part 
of honor to abide by the decision of such ma- 
jority. Surely the path of honor in such a 
case becomes the path of duty. It is the essence 
of government by the people that the will of 
the majority should control, and no man 
should put himself in a position of defiance to 
that will simply because he does not concur in 
the views of the majority. But, it may be said, 
that ofttimes laws are unjust, unwise, and op- 
erate harshly on individuals. Doubtless that 
is true, but General Grant never said a wiser 
thing than when he declared that the best way 
to treat a bad law was to enforce it strictly, for 
then its odious features would soon arrest at- 
tention, and the considerate judgment of the 
majority would repeal it. 

It has been said that popular government 
was doomed to failure because of the bitterness 
growing out of election contests; that human 
nature is such that the result of the struggles 
at the polls will not always be acquiesced in by 
the defeated party, and that an appeal to arms 



96 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

may be expected from those there beaten, and 
that when once such an appeal is successful 
repetitions will follow, until, dismayed and 
harassed thereby, the community gladly takes 
refuge in a strong central government with a 
continuous executive. All social and business 
interests will prefer even " a man on horse- 
back " to anarchy and confusion. It is not to 
be gainsaid that the experience of many so- 
called republican governments furnish support 
to this contention. Eevolutions follow one an- 
other in some of our South American States 
with almost the frequency of elections, and 
with far greater regularity than earthquakes 
and volcanic eruptions. A friend of mine, re- 
turning the other day from one of those States, 
told me that while there he spoke to some gen- 
tlemen about the frequency of revolutions, and 
received the reply, that unlike their northern 
neighbors they had neither tennis, nor cricket, 
nor golf to amuse themselves with, and must 
have revolutions for their fun. 

We have had in our history one terrible les- 
son, a lesson which will not soon be forgotten, 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 97 

and which, in addition to other matters, was a 
declaration as forceful as could have been 
made that this people will fight to the last 
before they will permit to enter into our polit- 
ical life the idea that any body of men or party 
can appeal from the ballot-box to the musket. 
It was a terrible lesson, but perhaps a neces- 
sary one, and now obedience, at least in respect 
to the action of parties and sections, to the 
supreme law of the land, is something which, 
so far as human foresight can determine, is in 
this nation to stay. We have since had election 
contests full of bitterness, contests in which 
the defeated party felt that it had been fraud- 
ulently deprived of a victory to which it was 
entitled by the popular vote. But while for a 
time passions raged with utmost violence, the 
one great lesson of the past was heeded, and 
rather than enter upon the bitter experience of 
revolution the defeated party, although smart- 
ing under the conviction that the fruits of 
victory had been stolen from it, was content 
to wait for a new election. To say that the 
acceptance of the results of an election is a 



98 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

duty resting upon all is simply another way 
of affirming the duty of obedience to the laws 
and the government. One of the imposing 
spectacles of our national life is the vision of 
the cheerfulness with which the great body of 
our people generally accept the result of an 
election. As Senator Daniels said, in his ad- 
dress at the Capital Centennial the other day, 
" the political clocks of both parties strike the 
same hours; after election." 

While I do not look for trouble in the way 
of attempted revolution, there is a form of dis- 
obedience to constituted authority which is be- 
coming unfortunately too prevalent and which 
is freighted with danger. I refer to those dis- 
turbances which attend what are commonly 
known as strikes. 

^As I have heretofore pointed out, obedience 
in the truest sense of the term is an active 
virtue. It calls not alone for personal conduct, 
but also for active effort to make obedience the 
universal rule. Industrial combination is a 
fact of to-day ; large manufacturing and trans- 
portation enterprises on the one hand, with 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 99 

great bodies of employees on the other. Com- 
bination and organization exist on both sides. 
Our constitutional guarantee of equality gives 
to either party the right to terminate the rela- 
tion of employer and employe. It is true that 
if such termination involves a breach of con- 
tract an action for damages will lie, which may 
be something of value against the employer 
and not much against the employee. But the 
termination of that relation, whether involving 
breach of contract or not, carries with it no 
right of coercion. No matter what injury to 
the employer, or disturbance of his interests, 
or inconvenience to the public the summary 
stopping of work by the employees singly or in 
mass may produce, the law does not attempt 
to compel them to work. An equality of right 
is possessed by the employer. He may termi- 
nate the relation of employer and employee, 
and the law will not compel him to reinstate 
it. If there be a breach of contract he may 
suffer in an action of damages, but the law 
does not forcibly re-establish the relation. As 
the employees may act in a body, so the em- 



100 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

ployers may act, and so may they treat them as 
a body. I am dealing now with the legal rights 
of the two parties. I take no notice of condi- 
tions which may exist if compulsory arbitra- 
tion ever becomes a feature of our law. There 
may then possibly be coercion. Neither do I 
stop to take notice of that pressure which 
comes from public sentiment and which often 
and justly influences one or both parties to 
seek to re-establish the relation; nor even of 
those ethical principles which ought to influ- 
ence us all, and which doubtless in the days 
to come may be more and more incorporated 
into positive law. I am dealing, as I said, 
simply with present legal relations, and the 
obligations of obedience to the laws which go 
hand in hand with those relations. 

While many of these strikes are settled 
peacefully, yet it is a sad fact in respect to not 
a few that they are attended by violence, colli- 
sion, destruction of property, and sometimes of 
life. It may be true that in many instances 
the violence and destruction are not the work 
of the strikers themselves, but of mere sympa- 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 101 

thizers, or even of the mob of the idle and 
vicious who are sure to congregate where there 
is a prospect of trouble. But he who calls a 
mob into being cannot be pronounced wholly 
guiltless of that which the mob may do. 

It is not my purpose to inquire which in any 
given case is primarily the most responsible, 
the employer or the employee. What I wish to 
emphasize is that these collisions involve a 
matter of disobedience. It is one thing to 
exercise a right which the law gives, and in 
the exercise of that right an individual or a 
combination is entitled to the fullest protec- 
tion; but it is an entirely different thing for 
one party to endeavor to prevent another from 
exercising an equal right under the law. It 
makes little difference whether the attempted 
coercion is by force or intimidation. In either 
case it is an effort not to change but to break 
the law. In either it is a matter of disobedi- 
ence in the truest sense of the term. It may 
be wise that all who are engaged in pursu- 
ing the same avocation should be organized 
into one body, but whether they should be so 



102 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

organized or not depends, as the law now 
stands, solely on voluntary action, and to at- 
tempt to deny a laborer his right to work, 
whether he be within or without an organiza- 
tion, or to deprive him of full protection in 
that work, implies a plain disregard of the 
mandates of the law. If it be, as a matter of 
political economy, wise that there should be a 
consolidation of all employees into one or more 
organizations, and that no one should be per- 
mitted to work except he be a member of such 
organizations, let the law makers so enact, and 
whenever a constitutional enactment to that 
effect is passed, then every good citizen should 
strive to enforce it. But until such enactment 
there is no justifiable excuse for attempting by 
any form of coercion or intimidation to de- 
prive one of his liberty in respect to labor, a 
liberty included within what our fathers de- 
clared to be inalienable rights, "life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness." 

Another matter which illustrates both the 
spirit and result of disobedience, and which is 
a blot on our national life, is the frequency of 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 103 

lynch law. It used to be said that it was an 
experience of the frontier, in communities 
which had not become fully organized and 
where the forces of the law were not yet in suc- 
cessful operation. But now it may almost be re- 
garded as a habit of the American people. 
Scarcely a day passes that the people of some 
community have not, as it is said, taken the 
law into their own hands. The time was when 
these acts were so rare, and coming only under 
conditions of terrible excitement and atrocious 
crime, that they startled us. They were called 
thunder-storms, and it was claimed in their 
justification that like thunder-storms they 
cleared the air. But now they are so common 
that we pay little attention to them, and look 
upon them as almost a matter of course. It is 
a convenient, inexpensive, and expeditious way 
of putting some worthless scoundrel out of the 
world, and the fact that there is an occasional 
mistake as to the real criminal seems to operate 
in no way to deter from similar actions and on 
slight provocation. 

Far be it from me to say that there is not in 



104 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

the administration of the law that which may 
be stated by way of palliation. It seems some- 
times as though legislation was conceived in 
the spirit of obstruction to the punishment of 
criminals and of indefinite postponement 
thereof by appeal, writ of error, and habeas 
corpus. Appellate courts have a wonderfully 
quick eye for detecting fine technical errors in 
criminal proceedings, and back of all stands a 
tender-hearted Executive responding to the ap- 
peals of relatives and friends of the criminal. 
It is not therefore altogether wonderful that 
an indignant community will take no chances 
but summarily inflicts the punishment the ac- 
cused deserves. But we must rise to a higher 
plane or the peace and order as well as the 
good name of society will suffer sad shatter. 
We shall rise to such higher plane only when 
the moral sense of the community is aroused 
to the enormity of such transactions. It is 
useless to scold legislators or lawyers or judges 
or executives. They will never be any better 
than the popular sentiment which is back of 
them. When that public sentiment is aroused 



OBLIGATION OF OBEDIENCE 105 

so as to feel that the safety of the community 
demands prompt, stern, unfaltering prosecu- 
tion of criminals, then it will be that legisla- 
tion will cease to block but will strive to facili- 
tate ; errors will be less obvious ; executives will 
be firmer; justice will be done; criminals will 
be punished, and lynch law will be forgotten. 
Disobedience to the law will in this respect be 
simply a matter of history. 

I might go on pointing out other forms of 
disobedience, and noting the varied results 
which flow therefrom, but perhaps these are 
enough. And the conclusion which I wish to 
draw is the duty and necessity of full, hearty 
obedience to the letter and spirit of all our 
laws. Do I lay too much stress on this? Am 
I failing to note the many imperfections which 
attend our laws and the administration 
thereof? By no means. On the contrary, I 
fully appreciate the incongruities, the defects, 
the imperfections. But there is no danger that 
obedience will tend to perpetuate these defects 
and imperfections; that the masses continually 
yielding to things as they are will become so 



106 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

used to them as neither to seek nor desire im- 
provement. On the contrary, the very spirit 
of the age is against contentment and acquies- 
cence. It challenges everything. It is volcanic 
and iconoclastic, and there is more likelihood 
of overthrow and revolution. We are in a 
hurry. We cannot wait the slow processes of 
growth and time. Given an evil, a defect, and 
we must strike it down, even if with it go many 
things of value. Kapid changes are the order 
of the day, and there is far more danger from 
the rapidity of those changes than from any 
supine acquiescence in things as they are. The 
obedience of the American is not cowardly. It 
is not from selfishness. It springs from a con- 
viction that it is duty. And he sees as the 
reward of duty done the promise of a better 
day for himself and his dear ones, and the 
sweet assurance that the nation, of which he 
is a citizen, in whose past he glories, and in 
whose future he hopes, will thereby be made 
stronger and better fitted for the full achieve- 
ment of its glorious mission in the world. 



THE DUTY OF STRIVING TO 
BETTER THE LIFE OF THE NATION 



THE DUTY OF STRIVING TO BETTER THE LIFE OF 
THE NATION 

The last matter which I wish to notice is one 
that looks forward: The duty of striving for 
the bettering of the life of the nation. The 
famous Scotch preacher, Dr. Guthrie, kept 
over his desk these words declaratory of his 
purposes in life: 

For the cause that needs assistance, 
For the wrong that needs resistance, 
For the future in the distance, 
And the good that I may do. 

To every citizen comes the nation's call in 
this direction. By as much as he appreciates 
all that the nation is to him, its protection, its 
helpfulness, its blessing; by as much as he re- 
alizes that his own possibilities of accomplish- 
ment are widened and strengthened, and that 

life will be made richer to his children and his 
109 



110 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

children's children by its continued growth in 
all the higher elements of national being; by 
so much should he listen and respond to its 
loud call to so order his life and work that all 
shall tend to the bettering of its life. 

Too many seem to feel that their duty to the 
nation is a qualified and limited one; that a 
negative obligation is all really resting upon 
them; that so long as they do not hurt the 
national life they are called upon for nothing 
more. Whatever they may do in the develop- 
ment of personal character, or in the discharge 
of social and political duties, is done without 
any appreciation of its effect upon the national 
life. It is enough for them, so far as the 
Eepublic is concerned, that they do not disobey 
its laws ; that when called upon they render the 
personal services demanded, and that their 
characters and the habits and conduct spring- 
ing therefrom are such as to keep them out of 
the police court. To them patriotism as an 
active virtue means nothing except in time of 
war, and not too much then. In peace a mere 
sluggish acquiescence in what is being done 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 111 

suffices. It never enters into their contempla- 
tion that the growing well-being of the country 
depends at all upon their personal efforts. In 
an easy way they turn over to others the full 
responsibility for the future. They know noth- 
ing of that magnificent thing called public 
spirit. They are content to take what comes, 
and doing nothing very discreditable are wont 
to believe that they are numbered among the 
good citizens. Like the servant mentioned in 
the parable they take the talent given them 
and, burying it in the earth, have no thought 
of returning it with interest. 

As against this negative view of duty I want 
to appeal for positive affirmative vigorous ac- 
tion. The poet says: 

We are living, we are dwelling, 
In a grand and awful time ; 

In an age on ages telling ; 
To be living is sublime. 

The thought thus expressed I wish to em- 
phasize, and emphasize it in relation to the 
duties of every one of its citizens to the great 
Republic. I want to appeal to the moral ele- 



112 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

ment in the nature of every student in this 
great university. I want to lift the obligations 
of citizenship above the mere question of 
mathematics, the duty of giving only up to the 
amount of receiving. I want as best I can to 
impress upon you that in your obligations to 
this nation the debtor side always carries a 
plus. Whatever of comfort, of prestige, of 
success, of glory, may attend your work for the 
nation, and whatever else may pass to the 
credit side of your account, the debtor side is 
always charged with a larger sum. And I add 
that the greater the credit side proportionately 
increased is the excess of the debit side. If in 
your experiences of life by the considerate 
judgment of your fellows, or the opportunities 
of business, you are lifted into positions of 
power and usefulness, the very fact that your 
credit side is enlarged above that of the ordi- 
nary citizen carries with it notice that the 
debtor side has increased even more rapidly. 

If this nation in its development had 
reached a state of perfection, or one near it, 
you might well say that the obligations resting 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 113 

upon you were limited to the duty of helping 
to preserve that which had been accomplished; 
but unfortunately whatever we may say about 
the greatness and glory of our nation, how- 
ever much we may boast of what it has 
achieved, we all know that when we place its 
present life over against a perfect life there is 
an unfortunate failure. National ideals are 
not yet with us national facts. We see a glory 
to be accomplished but not yet realized. We 
are conscious of shortcomings, defects, delin- 
quencies, which we hope will some day disap- 
pear. As each individual has his ideals, which 
unfortunately he never realizes, so each one of 
us looks upon the nation and sees that with all 
it has done and accomplished there is still a 
vast field of achievement. 

Notwithstanding all the boastings we make 
of the grand history and the glorious life of 
this Eepublic, no thoughtful man doubts the 
magnitude of the work before us. There runs 
through the present life of the nation a multi- 
tude of imperfections and shadows. The na- 
tional life is not perfect. Society as it exists 



114 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

to-day has many dark places. We are still far 
from the Millennial day. I may not notice all, 
and yet these stand out in bold relief : There is 
undoubtedly corruption in political life — per- 
haps not all that some despondent persons as- 
sert, but still there is a commercialism in poli- 
tics which no thoughtful man can be ignorant 
of. The equal voice of the voters is not yet 
secured, and that irrespective of the matter of 
intimidation. A great many do not cast their 
votes in accordance with their independent 
honest judgment. Influences more or less cor- 
rupt are potent. Notwithstanding all our edu- 
cational privileges, our common schools, and 
the great work they are doing (and I have not 
the slightest desire to minimize the extent of 
their work) there is a fearful volume of igno- 
rance. More than that, there is in our popu- 
lation a heterogeneous mass. We are not all 
Anglo-Saxon. We do not all spring from those 
races which have true ideas of self-govern- 
ment. We have a great multitude coming from 
those nations in which government is a sup- 
posed enemy, a multitude which has no idea 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 115 

of the meaning of liberty restrained by law. 
It has yet to be Americanized, to be brought 
into a realization of the limitations upon per- 
sonal action which come from the highest ob- 
ligations of liberty. More than that, we have, 
notwithstanding our enormous resources and 
great territory, a large population who know 
nothing of the blessing of a home, and the pure 
surroundings which attach thereto. 

Surely in this meagre picture of the life and 
needs of the nation there is an appeal to every 
kingly soul. In feudal times it was the boast 
of the knight that no appeal from the weaker 
sex went unheeded. Those times have been 
called, and not improperly, the age of chivalry. 
I want to revive something of the spirit of that 
age, in the knightly devotion of each of our 
citizens to the Eepublic. The story of Eichard 
Cceur de Lion will to the end of time move 
every soul, and it is well that it does so. Ideals 
of heroism, persistence, and devotion should 
ever be held before the eyes of the young, and 
not be put one side as no part of the practical 
life of to-day. On the contrary, there never 



116 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

has been a time in the history of the world 
when ideals towering above the mere struggle 
for pecuniary personal reward were of more 
importance. 

Men take the pure ideals of their souls 

And lock them fast away, 
And never dream that things so beautiful 

Are fit for every day ! 
So counterfeits pass current in their lives, 

And stones they use for bread, 
And starvingly and fearfully they walk 

Through life among the dead, 
Though never yet was pure ideal 
Too fair for them to make their Real. 

The thoughts of beauty dawning on the soul 

Are glorious heaven-gleams. 
And God's eternal truth lies folded deep 

In all man's lofty dreams ; 
In thoughts still world, some brother-tie which 
bound 

The Planets, Kepler saw, 
And through long years he searched the spheres, 
and there 

He found the answering law. 
Men said he sought a wild ideal, 
The stars made answer, "it is Real ! " 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 117 

Aye, Daniel, Howard, all the crowned ones 

That, star-like, gleam through time, 
Lived boldly out before the clear-eyed sun, 

Their inmost thoughts sublime ! 
Those truths, to them more beautiful than day, 

They knew would quicken men ; 
And deeds befitting the millennial truths 

They dared to practise then, 
Till they who mocked the young ideal 
In meekness owned it was the Real. 

Thine early dreams, which came like ' ' shapes of 
light," 

Came bearing Prophesy ; 
And nature's tongues, from leaves to " 'quiring 
stars, ' ' 

Teach loving faith to Thee ; 
Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights 

Where golden splendors play ; 
And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul 

In simple faith alway ; 
And God will make divinely Real 
The highest forms of thine Ideal. 

In the presence of these ideals the question 
comes to every young man, what is your pur- 
pose in life ? Do you look forward to it in the 
hope of honor, wealth or pleasure, or are you 
stirred through and through with the thought 



118 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

that life means to you possibilities of useful- 
ness and service ? Are you ambitious ? I hope 
so, notwithstanding Cardinal Wolsey's words 
to his protege, " Cromwell, I charge thee fling 
away ambition. By that sin fell the angels." 
I agree that ambition which is purely personal, 
whose boundaries are self and pleasure, is 
something calling for no laudation or approval. 
But an ambition not so circumscribed, but 
which has the idea of usefulness — and it may 
be of a name connected with that usefulness — 
an ambition which looks to achievement for 
others, is one worthy of all commendation. It 
is one which stirs the individual to loftiest 
deeds and noblest living. I have little respect 
for one who has no ideals in life; for one who 
measures the whole purpose and scope of his 
existence by the loaf and the dollar. Such a 
one may have all the negative qualifications of 
a citizen. He may never antagonize the course 
of things prescribed by the law. He may never 
fail in obedience to the letter of the statute or 
in response to any demand for personal service, 
and yet he may go through life possessed of a 



BETTER LIEE OF THE NATION 119 

character which, though destitute of positive 
vices, is equally wanting in positive virtues. 
He stands a type of those mentioned in the 
Eevelations as members of the Church of 
Laodicea : " Thou art neither cold nor hot. I 
would thou wert cold or hot. So then because 
thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I 
will spew thee out of my mouth." 
**Among the ideals filling the aspiring soul of / 
every citizen of these United States should be 
the ideal nation. Neither himself nor his fam- 
ily, his friends, the community in which he 
lives, nor even the single State of which he is 
primarily a citizen should fill the measure of 
his thoughts and labors — but the great Eepub- 
lic, of which both himself and his family, 
friends, community and State are but parts, 
should ever rise like Mont Blanc among the 
Alps, the supreme object of devotion and toil.^- 

I do not mean that every one should look 
forward with the purpose or expectation of 
being a statesman and holding office, of becom- 
ing a politician of the respectable kind, or even 
the favored recipient of a newspaper para- 



120 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

graph. But I do mean that one clear purpose 
of every life should be to help in making the 
nation better. It should be a distinct object in 
life; something which the individual aims to 
accomplish, and not something which may 
come as a mere incident to other efforts and 
purposes. We must live with the idea that we 
have a solemn duty to this Eepublic; that we 
are its large debtors, and that the only limit to 
our obligation is our capacity to help in lift- 
ing its life to a higher and nobler plane. 

To carry such a purpose into effect we must 
have both courage and candor. The question 
which each must ask is not, how can I become 
most popular, but how can I do the most good ? 
We often hear the sentiment: our country, 
right or wrong. A higher thought is: our 
country, let us make it always right. Times 
may come in which we have to stand by our 
country, even though we do not fully agree 
with what it is doing. In case of a war, and 
one even which our judgment does not ap- 
prove, we cannot ally ourselves with the enemy. 
We cannot afford to be traitors. We may be 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 121 

compelled to serve as its soldiers and help it in 
its effort to victory. And yet we can always be 
numbered among those who demand that the 
nation shall only engage in righteous war; 
that no matter of hate or revenge, no thought 
of territorial acquisition or eagerness to display 
our power before the world shall ever lead us 
into a bloody conflict with our neighbors. We 
can also ever demand that the end of every war 
shall be a righteous and just peace. This na- 
tion must not appear before the world as a 
highwayman. Stand and deliver must never 
be the motto of the Eepublic. Victory must be 
seasoned with justice. If the purpose of the war 
be accomplished, the end should promptly and 
rightfully come; and the greater our power, 
the greater our victory, the higher is our obli- 
gation to do justice. Noblesse oblige is a rule 
for nations as for individuals. And that na- 
tion as that individual stands highest in the 
world's thought, becomes most potent for good, 
which in the hour of triumph manifests the 
most consideration and magnanimity. 

I know that we are sometimes hampered by 



122 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

party organizations. A fundamental fact, a 
necessity in the life of a government by the 
people is organization into parties of those who 
agree upon certain lines of conduct. As indi- 
vidual members of a party we cannot dictate 
its policy in all things. It may be duty to 
choose between two parties, each of which does 
some things which do not accord with our 
judgment. It may be a choice between two 
evils; and this sometimes where matters of 
gravest importance are involved. A notable 
instance is found in the recent campaign. Ke- 
publicans, like Senator Hoar, though strongly 
opposed to the attitude of the present Kepub- 
lican Administration in respect to the Philip- 
pine Islands, earnestly supported its continu- 
ance in power because they believed greater 
evils would result from the success of Mr. 
Bryan. Others, like Governor Boutwell, pur- 
sued an opposite course. No one can doubt 
the sincerity, the patriotism, the devotion to 
duty of either. They agreed on one thing. 
They differed as to the remedy. So will it 
often be with the most conscientious men. 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 123 

Lecky, the historian, speaking of a similar 
situation in the English Parliament, says: 

" Every one who is actively engaged in poli- 
tics — every one especially who is a member of 
the House of Commons — must soon learn that 
if the absolute independence of individual 
judgment were pushed to its extreme, political 
anarchy would ensue. The complete concur- 
rence of a large number of independent judg- 
ments in a complicated measure is impossible. 
If party government is to be carried on, there 
must be, both in the Cabinet and in Parlia- 
ment, perpetual compromise. The first condi- 
tion of its success is that the Government 
should have a stable, permanent, disciplined 
support behind it, and in order that this should 
be obtained the individual member must, in 
most cases, vote with his party. Sometimes he 
must support a measure which he knows to be 
bad, because its rejection would involve a 
change of government which he believes would 
be a still greater evil than its acceptance, and 
in order to prevent this evil he may have to 



124 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

vote a direct negative to some resolution con- 
taining a statement which he believes to be 
true. At the same time, if he is an honest man, 
he will not be a mere slave of party. Some- 
times a question arises which he considers so 
supremely important that he will break away 
from his party and endeavor at all hazards to 
carry or to defeat it." 

As Lecky suggests in this last sentence, there 
are times when one must rightfully break away 
from party, and either join the opposition or 
aid in the formation of a third party. This, 
although inconsiderable in numbers, may be a 
protest challenging attention and resulting in 
great good. Ordinarily it is better to work 
within a party than against it, though there are 
exceptions to the rule. For years the Abolition- 
ists were an insignificant handful, and yet their 
separate action was a constant protest, which 
prevented the question of slavery from being 
ignored, and which in the end led to its over- 
throw. Like John the Baptist, they were ridi- 
culed, condemned, pictured as clothed with 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 125 

camel's hair and a girdle about the waist, but, 
like John the Baptist, they were a voice in the 
wilderness. It may well be doubted whether 
the same result would have followed had they 
retained their relations to either of the great 
parties of the day. 

So to-day the Prohibition party is a constant 
protest. We may think its policy unwise ; that 
its action tends more to continue than to over- 
throw the liquor traffic. Whatever we may 
think of the effect of its action in temporary 
results, the beautiful motto which Frances 
Willard bequeathed as her legacy to the world, 
" For God and home and native land/' is like 
the voice of the Baptist, " repent ye; repent 
ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand " ; 
and that party's protest and unpractical action 
may yet prove the forerunner of a new dispen- 
sation. 

The constant effort of the individual to cre- 
ate a higher thought in the nation will surely 
find large results in its life. The new century 
finds us face to face with new conditions. We 
are, whether wisely or unwisely, placed in con- 



126 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

tact with and given control over large bodies 
of comparatively uncivilized peoples. Shall we 
repeat our dealings with the Indians of North 
America, and have at the end of this hundred 
years a second edition of " A Century of Dis- 
honor," or shall justice, honesty, and righteous- 
ness illumine all our association with them, 
and thus they be led willingly, joyfully, into 
the glorious life of a better civilization? 

The commercial activity of this nation is in- 
creasing with wonderful rapidity. No lover of 
his country cares to stay that activity. Bather 
let it go on, and in its peaceful flow bring us 
into intimate relations with all nations, and in 
that growing intercourse give increased de- 
mand and greater remuneration for our prod- 
ucts, industry, and inventive skill. It is pleas- 
ing to notice, and that too even in the pro- 
ceedings of Congress, the indications of a 
growing feeling that there shall be a moral ele- 
ment in such commercial activity, and that the 
best development of our commercial supremacy 
excludes from its scope opium and rum. Com- 
merce, to bless us, must bless the nations and 
the peoples with whom we deal. 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 127 

Xineteen centuries ago there broke upon the 
startled ears of Judea's shepherds watching 
their flocks beside the village of Bethlehem the 
only angel's song ever heard by the children of 
earth : 

It came upon the midnight clear, 

That glorious song of old, 
From angels bending near the earth 

To touch their harps of gold : 
14 Peace on the earth, good-will to men 

From heaven's all gracious king." 

Though nineteen centuries have passed 
away, still the war-song is sung, the war-drums 
speak, and the prophetic day seems far off in 
the future. But the day will come, and all hail 
to the nation and the men who strive to bring 
it nearer. While our national life has not been 
clear it may truthfully be said to its glory that 
this Eepublic has been among the foremost na- 
tions to speak for peace and to plead for meli- 
oration of the hardships of war so long as war 
shall last. One of the first treaties we made 
(the Jay treaty of '94 with England) stipu- 
lated for protection to individuals in case of 
war, and from that time on in our treaties and 



128 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

negotiations with other nations we have con- 
stantly striven to at least soften its hardships. 
We have entered into more arbitration arrange- 
ments than any other nation. We have sought 
to introduce arbitration into the life of the 
world. We stood shoulder to shoulder with 
Great Britain in the recent Peace Conference 
at the Hague, the most urgent for those stipu- 
lations which tend to prevent the recurrence of 
war. It is and must be the dream of the future 
that this nation, baptized from its infancy 
into the gospel of the Prince of Peace, should 
take the lead in all efforts in that direction. It 
is the solemn call to every citizen, and espe- 
cially to the young, who must soon bear the 
burdens of national life, to do that which lies 
within their power to make peace, first, the law 
of this nation, and, second, the law of the 
world. There never was a time when public 
opinion was more potent. And if the accumu- 
lating voice of public opinion within this Re- 
public shall proclaim its adherence to the prin- 
ciples of peace, other nations will heed and 
follow. And the time will come — 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 129 

11 When the whole world gives back the song 
Which now the angels sing. " 

Young gentlemen, you are the sons of Yale. 
Doubtless, the handful of ministers who placed 
a few books on a table to signify the beginning 
of a college, did not foresee how during the 
two succeeding centuries their venture would 
grow into this grand university. But they laid 
the foundations in the belief that during all its 
years it would be true to the purposes of use- 
fulness for which it was founded, and would 
fit the young for public employment in church 
and civil state. And in her long history Yale 
has never proved false to those purposes. Out 
from these halls have gone a mighty multitude 
who, scattered through the length and breadth 
of the land, have done noble service in uplift- 
ing the life of both church and state. In all 
departments of public service her sons have 
been found, and before their eyes have glowed 
the bright ideals of a better life in the nation. 
Ever have they striven to take the great nation- 
al heritage they received from their fathers, 
and pass it on to their children a nobler heri- 



130 AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

tage, blessed and beautified by their toils and 
fidelity. Their blood has crimsoned many a 
field of battle, as they died for liberty and 
union. In the councils of the nation they have 
spoken words which have been strong for truth 
and righteousness. They have sat in the judi- 
cial tribunals, and their judgments have looked 
forward, as they strove to make plain the ways 
of the law. In all departments of industrial 
and commercial activity they have been num- 
bered among the leaders. In school and college 
and university they have passed on to countless 
multitudes the learning and wisdom gathered 
in this great home of knowledge. From the 
pulpit they have spoken words of comfort and 
hope, and striven in ten thousand ways to make 
life sweeter because purer. 

In the shadow of the achievements of these 
who have gone before you, in the presence of all 
the precious memories of the past, you, young 
gentlemen, stand to-day facing the great pos- 
sibilities of life in the new century. Will you 
be recreant to the past of old Yale, or will you 
stand in the future firm for all those things 



BETTER LIFE OF THE NATION 131 

which make for the better life of the nation? 
Will you go on in your various walks in life 
ever pleading for the higher things, strong for 
truth, justice, purity and righteousness, and 
rejoicing evermore in the sweet thought that — 

Grand and hale are the elms of Yale, 
Like Angels bending o'er you. 



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